Predators: Variety of Prey
by SomeGuyOverHere
Summary: The Hunt is on again. But this time, the hunters will not just be hunting the most dangerous people on earth. They'll be hunting the most dangerous people in the entire universe. Including Thane Krios and Urdnot Wrex.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own neither Mass Effect, nor Predators

Chapter 1

Warriors of the Galaxy

The sound of the wind whipping outside the shuttle, the smell of adrenaline before a fight, the cool touch of your favorite shotgun, all part of a warrior's life. Something Urdnot Wrex had been away from for far too long.

He had missed his days of riding shuttles, waiting to be dropped off into a hot zone. Smoke clogging the air, explosions going off left and right, and gunfire so thick if you put up your hand it'd get shredded within seconds.

Yes, Wrex missed it very much.

He knew the importance of his work as Clan Leader of Urdnot, but sometimes he just needed to go out and let loose, crack a few skulls. That was a nice memory, the sound of skulls cracking. Different species skulls made different sounds too. Humans made a juicier crunch whereas Turians had a sort of papery sound to them.

The thoughts reminded him of his time with Commander Shepard, strong warrior, good woman, and friend. Them and the team, against the unknown, killing it with big guns, good times.

So, given his past, he understandably needed to get out every now and then, kill something.

When he'd been contacted that some pirates had made an unauthorized landing not too far from Clan Urdnot's camp, he'd been nearly overjoyed.

He'd practically jumped of his throne, slapped on his battle armor, grabbed his favorite shotgun, and ordered a pilot to fly him over, with no escorts to protect him.

He could barely contain his giddiness as he sat in the shuttle. Though the wait was made more bare able by the comfort of his armor. It was a well-worn suit, a dull grey in color, with many chips in its paint, but it was a hell of a lot better than that ceremonial crap he was forced to wear.

His shotgun was a modified M-22 Eviscerator. He tinkered with it and given it an extended clip so that he could now squeeze of 5 rounds before having to reload.

And of course, he was a Krogan Battle Master; his biotics could make short work of anything his shotgun wouldn't.

"Clan Leader," called the pilot from the cockpit, "we are approaching the drop off point!"

"Good, my trigger finger was getting itchy," he snarled as he stood up from his seat,

There was a small jerk as the shuttle slowed to make its descent, when it finally touched down the doors popped open and let in a bright beam of sunlight.

Wrex took a moment to soak in the barren wasteland that was Tuchanka.

"Are you certain you will not need assistance Clan leader," asked the pilot,

"Yes!" he growled, "not get off my back, lift off, and don't come for me until I tell you to!"

"As you wish," the pilot closed the doors and took off immediately,

Wrex grumbled under his breath, too much pampering. If he'd known he'd be babied as Clan Leader, he might have refused the post.

((#*%^)#(%&^)(#%)#%&_(&%_#)%&)#%^)#)#(%*^)#%^))

The Citadel, center of the universe, at least as far as any species was concerned

Many would like to believe that it was also the city upon the hill, the epitome of society, the shining white city of all that was civilized. But for every shining city, there had to be a dark underbelly.

That was where all the gritty cloak and dagger happened.

Where crime bosses like the human Red dust distributer; Malcom, did his work.

Those with his kind of power, felt like they were at the top of the world.

And with so many Eclipse mercenaries protecting him, why shouldn't he.

Located at the top of a ten story skyscraper, each floor containing at least a dozen guards and security camera's watching every corner. Not even a squad of Asari commandos could get in without trouble.

Perhaps not a squad of commandos, but what of a single Drell assassin? One well versed in the ways of being unseen and using the shadows, one named Thane Krios.

The assassin moved through the halls of the building swiftly and silently. His body blending into the shadows and his footsteps so quiet, they might as well have not even happened.

The guards were no use, not a single one of them noticed as a figure slipped by.

Most assassins would have dispatched the guards along the way, or at least, just enough so that the exit would be easier. But Thane was not most assassins, if he had to kill guards, it meant that he'd made a mistake, and he rarely made mistakes.

Sneaking his entire way up to the top floor, Thane hit an obstacle.

A door

More specifically, a double door with ten inch thick plating, four guards outside, and one mean looking Krogan.

But to Thane, this was nothing new.

He'd long ago found the solution to this obstacle. A mechanic's door on the adjacent hallway lead to a power room. Inside the room, a ventilation shaft.

The Drell crawled into the shaft and stealthily made his way through it until he finally found himself above in the ceiling of Malcom's office, there his target sat at a large desk, busily going through his computer.

Predictably, there were guards in the room as well.

Two of them

They would be of little challenge.

Before carrying out his mission, Thane uttered a quick prayer,

"Amonkira, Lord of Hunters, grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true, my feet swift. And should the worst come to pass, grant me forgiveness."

Quiet as a shadow, the assassin dropped down from the vent, his steps making no sound.

Reaching into this coat, Thane pulled out two M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol, one for each hand.

With expert aim, he fired both weapons at the same time, each shot blowing out the brains of their intended targets. The guards fell to the ground, Malcom, to shocked to respond, was helpless as Thane's hands wrapped around his head and violently jerked it to the side.

A sickening crack filled the room and the man was dead.

Just as the Drell was about to pray for his sins, the entire room became flooded with light, the double doors opened, and at least six guards and the Krogan stormed into the room. Each pointing an assault rifle at Thane.

There was a ring from the computer on the desk.

Thane turned his eyes to it.

"Incoming call" it said,

"Pick it up," ordered the Krogan,

Thane decided to play along and answer the call.

The face of a bald, pale skinned human popped up on the screen, a smug look on his face.

"So," started the human, "you're the famous Thane Krios; you've got a body count bigger then all my men put together. I almost feel bad for killing you, could use someone with your skills in my service."

"You knew I was coming," said Thane,

"Course I did, ever since your time with Shepard, you've been taking down crime bosses like me non-stop, but that ends here"

"I'm afraid not," replied Thane, "I knew that you were expecting me. That's why I placed an explosive charge on your building's power generator."

The assassin held up a detonator,

Malcom's eyes widened, "Kill-"

Thane pressed the button.

A tremor rocked the building and the lights all died.

The squad of Eclipse soldiers opened fire, their shots hit nothing but air.

"Where is he?" asked one of the mercenaries,

"Where did he go?"

The sound of twin pistols cracked through the air as one by one the hired guns fell.

The merc's in turn fired at random, wherever their assailant decided to reveal himself. The bright blue light of their guns bathed the room, the light growing smaller and smaller as their number's dwindled.

Soon, only two and the Krogan were left.

"Come out an fight coward!" growled the large alien,

Thane fired from the shadows, the shot hit the Krogan in the shoulder but bounced off its shields.

"Ha! Got you!" it growled,

The Krogan charged towards its victim, Thane remained calm and still until the last second, where he quickly stepped out of the way.

The Krogan, unable to stop its charge, smashed through the window and fell to the streets below.

The remaining two mercenaries quickly opened fire.

Thane closed the distance between them too fast. His foot struck out and knocked away one's rifle, then followed up with a strong punch to the man's throat, crushing his wind pipe.

The next, an Asari, threw a blast of biotic energy at him. He swiftly dodged and used his own biotics to render the blue alien weightless, letting her float in the air before he delivered a shot to her head.

The Drell caught movement in the corner of his eye.

He quickly ran up to the windows to see Malcom fleeing for his escape shuttle.

Thane knew he'd never make it to the man in time. But as always, he had a plan.

Making his way to the room's balcony, he was given a clear view of the fleeing prey. He grabbed off from his back, an M-92 Mantis sniper rifle.

He brought the rifle's scope to his reptilian eyes and sighted his target.

Malcom had already made it to his shuttle and was in the process of taking off.

From the angle he was at, Thane had not chance of hitting the man himself, but he had a perfect line of sight on the pilot.

The shuttle's thrusters finally kicked to life and the pilot quickly pushed them to get them the hell out of there, slamming his foot down on the acceleration peddle, just as his head exploded.

From her perch, Thane watched as the shuttle spiraled down to the ground, thousands of feet below.

Malcom wouldn't be able to fly the shuttle himself; the shot from his rifle had destroyed the controls.

Another perfect assassination.

Storing his rifle back onto his back,

He clamped his hands together and began to pray.

(*&%($^(^$(*&(*%*(&^*(#$%^#*&%^#$)(#*&%^)#^)%^)&^#%(*%^)#^%)

A good hunter knows when to stay hidden and when to strike. A good soldier knows when to follow orders and when to follow his heart. A veteran, knows when to follow his instincts and when to work with what's been given to him.

He was all of these things. He was a lethal killing machine.

Alliance military, black ops, well-armed. A good combination.

Target: slavers

Location: Terminus system

Planet: Classified

Currently within slaver camp

Name: Classified

Rank: Classified

History: Classified

Date: Classified

The operative watched as the slavers, mostly Batarian, some human, herded their "merchandise" into cages.

Men were put in separate cages from women and children. The men would be sold for manual labor, women would most likely become servants or prostitutes, and the children? Unknown

"Get the buyers online right now," ordered a Batarian, the leader, "tell them we've got a fresh stock. All look healthy and useable for something, even the kids."

"Yes sir," said a human,

"Hurry it up people," yelled the leader, "if we sell this batch, we can all say hello to a big chunk of change!"

The operative scanned the room

A dozen targets, all well-armed, others most likely in the adjacent rooms as well.

The operative practiced switching from target to target with his Mattock rifle, he continued until he was satisfied.

"You two!" growled the leader, "get me one of the women, I could use some stress relieving after that raid."

His head exploded,

"Shit" screamed one of the slavers,

A second later a clustered group of them became a find red mist and a shower of meaty chunks as a grenade blew them to bits.

Loud cracks of the Mattock's shots rung through the air as the Operative picked off the hostiles one by one.

"Up there!" shouted a slaver,

The survivors looked up to see a figure clad in Terminus armor taking pot shots at them through a window on the roof.

Before any of the slavers could do anything about it, they'd already taken a bullet to a vital organ.

The Operative dropped down from the ceiling and made his way through the room.

"Hey!" called one of the prisoners, "are you here to help us? Get us out!"

The Operative nodded, when suddenly the doors opened. The Operative dove behind a pile of crates as slaver reinforcements filled the air with gunfire.

The Operative swapped his Mattock for a Katana shotgun, he pulled out another frag grenade, hit the detonator and tossed it over his cover.

"Grenade!" yelled a slaver,

The Operative heard the explosion and burst out from cover.

The first slaver he saw he immediately shot, another came out from behind a pillar and had his head blow off. The next fired at him from the side and was immediately put down with two bursts.

Suddenly a slaver jumped out and latched himself to the Operative's back, one hand around the Operative's neck and the other hold a knife.

It was almost laughable.

The Operative tossed the slaver over his shoulder and onto the ground.

"No wait!" cried the slaver,

The Operative fired

($%#$%^&&(&(*#%^*&#%^(*#&%(#*$^)#%^)#%^()#^%)^%()#%)

Zekk'Preet vas Tonbay, or Zekk as he was more commonly known, sighed for the tenth time of the day.

He was just another Quarian out on his pilgrimage, trying to bring back something useful to the fleet.

He'd decided from the day he'd set out, to go and try his luck in some sort of military pursuit. Thus he went to go sign up with mercenaries, hoping that at some point he'd run into something of use.

Possibly a new type of weapon, better combat armor, new tech, anything really. The Quarians could use every military advantage they could get, they lived on Ships, they had no home world to defend. If their fleet got attacked, the enemy would automatically be attacking their homes.

But, it had been a full year by human counts since he'd set out, and so far he'd had little success.

The mercenaries he'd joined up with were more like a gang.

Running around Omega, getting paid to do jobs, most of which were morally questionable, and drinking at the cheapest bar with the cheapest whores.

Zekk didn't participate in the last two, he couldn't since his immune system was so weak he'd probably die of infection the moment he had a tear in his suit.

Omega was, not exactly the cleanest place in the world.

Still, it build character. The kind of character one would need to survive in the cruel universe.

But despite its "character building abilities" as Zekk liked to put it, he still remained…

"Hey Zekk,"

The Quarian looked up from the chipped bar table to see the single most beautiful thing in all of Omega.

"Oh…hey Kat" said Zekk,

"Have any adventures recently?" she asked,

For a brief moment, Zekk found himself tongue tied. Kat was a young female human with ginger hair tied into a tight pony tail, emerald green eyes, and a lip ring on those lovely ruby red lips. Despite all the crap that happened on Omega, she remained chipper.

Plus, she knew how to handle herself. Zekk had once seen her thrust her knee into a Turian's "tender spot" for asking her the stupid question "how much?"

"Uh…" he started,

She giggled cutely,

"Well, not really," he said, "just the usual stuff."

"Ah, cracking heads with your buddies," she said, pointing off to the side where a few members of Zekk's group were downing their 13th shot of some alcohol and groping the prostitutes.

"Uh…yeah," he replied bashfully,

"Well, it's probably more exciting than spending your days behind a counter serving drinks and fending off drunks," she quipped,

"Heh," he chuckled,

"find something for your pilgrimage yet?"

"No," he admitted,

"Well, to be honest, I'm glad kind of glad you haven't, you're better company than the usual rabble we get," she said,

"Really?" asked Zekk, suddenly popping up,

Kat giggled, "Yeah, is that visor fogged up or something? Can't you see me talking to you every time you're here?"

"Uh…well I…you see it's just," he stuttered,

"Tumar!" roared an angry voice,

"Uh oh," sighed Kat, "looks like you're friends have friends."

Zekk looked over to see a Turian, backed up with two Humans, a Krogan, and a Batarian and four LOKI mechs, marching their way towards his boss, a middle aged human named *Tumar.

*Tumar is said (Too-mar)

Three of Zekk's own gang grabbed their guns, but did not raise them.

"Lorik, what an unpleasant surprise," Tumar said through feigned happiness, "can buy your boy's anything? Drinks? Women?"

"How about your heart, on a plate!" growled the Turian,

"Ooh, sorry, I kind of need my heart, especially when I'm gonna be spending time with this little minx here," he said as he ran a finger down the chin of an Asari suggestively caressing his leg.

"I know it was you hit did the hit on my men down at the warehouse!" growled Lorik,

"Warehouse, warehouse," repeated Tumar as though trying to remember, "let's see…nope, got nothing."

"Well that's just fine," Lorik said in a low tone, "cause me and my men are going to help you. See these mechs? Top quality, bought them just for this occasion."

"Their real shiny," mocked Tumar, "I bet you spent a fortune on them."

"It was money well spent to see you ripped apart," assured Lorik, "Kill him!"

Lorik's gang and Mechs raised their guns

Zekk and his men raised their guns

The Mechs fired

And Lorik's men dropped to the ground, a burning hole in each of them.

"What!" cried out Lorik as the Mechs turned their guns on him,

"Thanks for the gift Lorik" said Tumar, a satisfied smile on his face, "those mechs will make a great addition to my group."

"But, how!" demanded Lorik,

"I've got an ace in the hole when it comes to mechs," bragged Tumar, he gestured behind Lorik,

The Turian turned around to see Zekk standing next to LOKI mechs he'd hacked.

"I hacked in to their systems in less than a minute," said Zekk, as he took out his Tempest submachine gun and turned it toward Lorik "I don't know whether to be proud or disappointed."

"Wait, please! I'll pay you double whatever Tumar is paying! Just help me out here, I-"

BANG

Lorik dropped to the ground, a gaping hole delivered from Zekk.

"Nice work Zekk my boy," complimented Tumar, "now, if you could turn the mechs off so the gang can store them away."

Zekk turned on his omni-tool, within a few second, the mechs curled up and shot down.

"You've just earned yourself a bonus," said Tumar as the men carried away the mechs,

"Now, if you'll excuse me," said Tumar as he lifted up the Asari still rubbing his inner thigh, "I'm gonna go to my room, all this excitement has me stressed out."

"Sure boss," said Zekk as the human walked away,

Zekk for his part, turned back to the bar and sat back down at his usual seat.

"That was pretty exciting," pointed out Kat,

"uh…yeah," he said, reaching down into his pockets, "listen, Kat…"

"Hm?"

"Um…well…never mind,"

(#%*(&#^%#%*&(#%^(#*%&^(#*&%^()#*(%^)#*%^)#%()#%*&^)%#)

Wrex was thrilled.

There were at least 15 pirates down there, all armed, and organized. And he got them all to himself.

The pirates had set up camp in a hollowed out building's bottom floor. Wrex had entered about two stories above them, which gave him a good vantage point.

The pirates had set up three men on patrol around the camp, one on the second floor, the other two at the front entrance.

Wrex could have stayed put and come up with a full proof plan that could efficiently neutralize all of them in an incredibly short amount of time. But, in the end, he opted for a much less complicated approach.

"Hey! Connor!" yelled the top patrol, a human, "Connor!"

"What?" Connor yelled back,

"Get up here and take my place! I'm getting hungry!"

"Quite whining Billy! You've only got a half an hour to go,"

Before Billy could protest, Connor had already turned away and left.

"Bastard," he grumbled as he turned around,

"when I get done with my shift, I'm gonna-" suddenly cut off by seeing a shotgun barrel

"What's up," quipped Wrex,

The shot echoed out through the entire building.

Connor looked back to see Billy's body fall off the first floor and land right in the middle of the campsite. In his place stood Wrex, shotgun smoking.

"Now normally I'd give you the option to surrender. But because I'm in a particularly good mood, I think I'll just kill all of you," said Wrex,

"Kill him!"

Wrex ducked down behind cover as shot whizzed overhead. The adrenaline was already starting to course through his system, it felt good.

Wrex unhooked a frag grenade from his belt, hit the trigger and tossed it over. He counted, 1…2…3, he popped out just as the grenade went off, scattering the whole lot of them.

The Krogan jumped over the railing and landed on to the bottom floor, right in front of a pirate who'd dropped to his belly to escape his grenade.

"Nice try," said Wrex, before blowing off his head.

The Pirates recovered from the explosion and came back gunning.

With a quick burst of fire, Wrex gunned down two more pirates before being forced to take cover behind a solid pillar.

Popping out of his cover briefly, he threw a Warp, a blue ball of biotic energy shot out from his hand, it flew through the air and slammed into one of the pirates, shredding the man apart.

"He's got biotics!" yelled one of them,

"No shit," Wrex muttered under his breath, using the same powers he shielded himself in a biotic barrier.

Without warning he roared and came charging out from the pillar. The pirates opened fire in an effort to drop him quickly, their attempt was met with failure as the rounds deflected off the Krogan's shield.

Wrex shot out his hand sending a group of the Pirates flying away.

A fourth who'd managed to escape being thrown, continued firing until Wrex rammed into him, causing the man to literally be tossed aside like a ragdoll.

One of the pirates who'd been tossed away by his biotics was met with a grizzly end as the man just got back to his feet, only for Wrex to smash into him and crush him against a wall.

The Krogan quickly dislodged himself from the blood mess and whipped around to blast a gaping hole in the second pirate, then grab the other by the collar of his armor and repeatedly headbutt the man until his face was nothing but a pulp.

Tossing away the corpse, Wrex turned his attention to the remaining 6 pirates.

The two guarding the front door had come back to rejoin with their comrades, and the other four had taken up positions behind a pile of heavy supply crates.

Wrex smirked

Calling upon his biotics again, he scattered their cover all over the room, leaving them in a slightly bewildered state.

Taking advantage of the opening, Wrex slung his shotgun and charged head first. The pirates never stood a chance.

The first took a powerful uppercut to his chin, breaking his neck and jaw at the same time.

The second was batted away like a fly, his head smashing against the rock wall

The third desperately fired his weapon, only for Wrex to tear it out of his hands, snap it in half then squeeze his head until it popped like a fruit

The fourth tried to run; he didn't get very far, especially not with a shotgun round in his back

The final two, were smart.

They stopped to think about what they should do about the Krogan covered in blood.

Wrex gave them one suggestion, "Boo!"

The two immediately started to flee.

"Hey! Come back here, I was just joking!" he called, of course they didn't stop, "ugh, cowards."

Gathering himself, and some extra rounds of ammo of the dead, he chased after them.

"Alright, where'd you two go," he asked himself as he exited the building onto the broken streets.

There was a scuffle to the right, Wrex turned his head just in time to see a foot disappear around a corner.

He trudged toward it, shotgun up and ready.

As he began to round the corner, he heard something strange. It sounded like the discharge of a weapon, only, bigger, maybe a bit less stable. Then there was the unmistakable sound of a man dying, then the gurgling of blood.

"Hey, is someone stealing my kills?" he called as he rounded the corner,

True to his ears, he found the last two pirates dead.

Though he did not feel bad for them, he was intrigued by their deaths. After taking a quick scan of the area and satisfied that no one was around, he knelt down to inspect the bodies.

The first one's cause of death was easy enough to discern, he looked like he'd gone through a butcher shop. Deep cut marks covered the man's chest and face, Wrex noticed a two stab wounds next to each other. Too level to be separate, most likely some sort of two pronged weapon.

The second however, was a bit of a mystery. Clearly he had not died of blades, no blade, no matter how sharp, could tear a whole that big.

It was the size of Wrex's fists put together, and it looked like it had been instantly cauterized. The sound he'd heard before? But he'd never seen a round do that kind of damage, not even from sniper rifles. A Claymore shotgun perhaps, but he'd recognize the sound of one.

It was just then that he heard an animalistic clicking noise. Wrex immediately whipped around but was confronted with nothing.

Dismissing it but still keeping sharp, Wrex returned to inside the building. He opened the supply crates and found a good amount of weapons, ammo, and food, this would be useful to the clan.

"Pilot," he called over his COM, "there are supplies here, round up some warriors and gather them up. The clan will make use of them."

"Yes Clan Leader,"

"And take off without me when you're done,"

"Clan Leader?"

"There's someone else out here, I'm tracking it down," explained Wrex,

"But Clan Leader, you cannot-"

"Do as you're told!" he growled,

"Yes Clan Leader,"

It was just then that he heard another scuffle, he quickly ran back outside to the two dead bodies, only to find them missing.

Now he was sure that something was around, but he still couldn't find it.

Then there was that clicking again.

Suddenly, Wrex felt a strange prick on his leathery neck. He reached up and found what looked like a small but extremely sharp dark.

Almost immediately Wrex felt himself getting tipsy, his vision blurry. Not good, he searched around, trying to find where the owner of the dart was, but he could still see nothing.

By now he was on his knees, vision was getting dark.

"Damn it," he groaned, he was on his belly by now.

The last thing he was, were a pair of feet walking towards him.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Predator or Mass Effect, seriously, I don't!

Chapter 2

Where the hell are we?

Thane woke to smell of water on the foliage, the feeling of crisp cool air gently gliding across his dry skin, and sight of the bluest sky he'd ever seen. And pain, there was some pain, a sharp jabbing sensation in his back, most likely due to some sort of fall.

With a bit of effort, Thane pushed himself up into a sitting position, blinking his eyes so that he might get a sense of his surroundings.

As he'd suspected, he was in some sort of rainforest. There were few of those nowadays but Thane had seen his fair share of them.

The assassin reached down into his coat and produced a rebreather, something he kept just in case he found himself in environments like this. His people, despite their appearance, favored dry surroundings as opposed to the humidity of jungles like this.

In addition, the humidity was bad for their health and with the already bad condition of Thane's lungs; he couldn't afford to take any chances.

Placing the rebreather to his mouth and tying the strap behind his head, he felt nice dry air flow into his damaged lungs.

Now to find out what had happened and how he'd even arrived here.

Judging from the device on his back that he recognized as a parachute, a human invention used to deliver droops from air transport before thrusters had been created, he correctly deduced that he'd been dropped from the air.

The broken branches of the trees above him confirmed his suspicions.

Next, he attempted to recall the last thing he remembered.

He'd just killed Malcom. He'd begun his to pray for his sins as custom of his work, then…nothing.

Just blackness after that

He'd been kidnapped, that much was clear. But why was he here, instead of some dark room where he'd wait to be ransomed or other such things.

None of this made sense.

He checked his person to see what supplies he had.

He still had his two Phalanx heavy pistols, his Mantis sniper rifle was still attached to his back, and he still had a few dry rations bars, for those jobs that required he wait long periods of time.

He then took a moment to take in his surroundings.

Dense foliage, humid, clear skies, no signs of civilization.

He felt no panic, he'd gotten a reign on that emotion long ago. But he did feel lost, as he had not even a direction to begin walking.

Throwing the parachute harness off his back, he decided to head for high ground.

That is until he heart the quietest sound in the bush.

The assassin quickly snapped around; pistol in hand, his well-trained eyes scanning the greenery for any signs of movement.

He remained silent. Slowly, but gradually, he backed himself into the foliage, soon disappearing from any watchful eyes.

A new figure popped out into the clearing that Thane had left behind. A powerful looking assault rifle in hand, the figure cautiously inched over towards the direction Thane had left.

The figure kept moving, closer, and closer.

Then the barrel of a gun got pressed against it's head.

"It's not nice to follow without announcing yourself," said a voice,

The figure turned to see the same Drell who'd just exited, to be the one holding the pistol.

Thane for his part, remained absolutely calm as he examined the newcomer.

She was an Asari, much like the rest of her species she was a dark blue color, with the only difference for her being the red face markings that dotted the right side of her face, much like human freckles, except in a more controlled and artistic fashion.

In her hands, she carried what he recognized to be an M-76 Revenant assault rifle, he knew because during his time with Commander Shepard, she'd carried one. On her hip was an M-6 Carnifex heavy pistol.

Both weapons were of high grade, meaning this Asari was probably one of position. Military perhaps? The predominantly red armor with a few stripes of white she wore suggested differently.

"Aren't you a sneaky one?" she said nonchalantly,

"I prefer the streets and buildings, but I've done work in jungles like this one as well."

"Really?" she asked slyly, suddenly the Asari whipped around, batting the pistol away.

Thane kept his grip on his weapon strong, raising it again at the Asari, who now had her own weapon leveled at him.

"So who hired you to kill me?" she asked, "Pirates? Shadow Broker? Getting too close for his comfort?"'

Thane raised a non-existent eyebrow, he'd been under the initial assumption that she knew more then he did. Though it seemed that she knew just as much if not less.

"I was hired to kill someone, but that someone is not you," he replied, "furthermore, that person is already dead."

"His corpse somewhere in this jungle?" she questioned, finger hovering dangerously over the trigger of her gun,

"In the smoldering wreckage of his escape shuttle, in the lower streets of the Citadel," he replied.

This time the Asari raised an eyebrow.

"You, don't know anything do you?" she realized,

"I know that we are in a jungle, and that I have no memory as to how I got here, that is all" was his answer,

There was a brief pause, before the Asari finally lowered her weapon, but did not sling it on her back.

"Alright Drell, I'll take your word for it. I'm pretty good at telling when someone is lying and my gut tells me you aren't."

"Thank you," said Thane as he put away his pistol, "It would have been a shame to have killed you with no reason. I'm not sure if my Goddess would forgive me if I did."

"Hmph, so what's your story?" she asked,

"Thane Krios," he said as he extended his hand,

The Asari looked at the hand hesitantly before taking the hand, "A'lez, she replied, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

"I think I've heard of you before," said A'lez, "you were part of Commander Shepard's crew correct? You fought alongside her to combat the Collector threat."

"I am, Commander Shepard and I are good friends, though I have not seen her for some time," he replied,

"Hm, so, any idea where we are?" asked A'lez,

"I'm afraid not, I'd just woken up recently when I ran into you," admitted the Drell, "what of you?"

"Well, I tried getting a signal, but all I got was static," she answered, "I was planning to try and find some higher ground, get a feel for the surrounding area. You?"

"We are of like mind, I too was going to try and find a high spot"

A'lez smiled and gestured for Thane to lead.

Thane nodded gratefully and began to walk.

The terrain was dense and rough, no flat ground and enough greenery to obscure sight for five feet. But Thane made his way through regardless, he gone through much worse terrain.

"What was the last thing you remember?" asked A'lez, as they walked, "before, you know, this?"

"I'd just taken down Red Sand distributer and Crime boss Malcom in the lower sectors of the Citadel," he replied, "I was praying, then I found myself here."

"So you do get paid to kill people," A'lez said, "it's okay, I get paid to kill people on occasion too."

"I only accept payment, it is there," corrected Thane, "sometimes I take down those who no one wishes to put a price on, because they are too afraid to."

"So, like, an angel or something?"

"I doubt an angel would be as troubled as I," replied the Drell, "what of you?"

"Well, I was storming a terrorist base on some moon. Don't ask me which moon, I can't keep track of them all. Anyway, these biotic extremists, or something, taking prisoners, demanding money to do something. I was sent in to defuse the situation, things turned south pretty quickly, and I had to get violent."

"And then?"

"Don't really remember," she admitted, "I'd just taken down the last of them and was gonna call for a pickup when…nothing."

"Our abductor seems to be very good at what he does," observed Thane, "to be able to take both you and I unaware, is no small feat."

"Well thank you"

"For what?"

"The compliment," she said, smiling and pulling ahead

It was then that Thane noted the pack on her back.

"What do you have in there?" he asked,

"Huh? Oh, the bag," she realized, "extra thermal clips, and my parachute. I figured we may be here a while, so I thought it might come in handy."

It was then that the two heard a rustle in the foliage not too far off.

Both dropped to a crouch, Thane put a finger up to his lips, A'lez nodded. Together they quietly made their way towards the rustling with the Drell in the lead.

The two made it thirty feet before Thane held up his hand. A'lez joined him in the front, the assassin pointed to a clearing a dozen meters away.

A'lez made out two figures, one Salarian, the other Turian.

"Think they're the ones who dropped us here?" she asked,

"Let's go ask them," answered Thane,

"You have a plan?"

"I will walk out and meet them, show that I am of no threat."

"What if they're the threat?"

"You should hang back and cover me from a distance, you are more obviously armed than I. I will be less likely to scare them."

"Okay, good plan but…well,"

"What is it?"

A'lez sighed, "my Revenant isn't very good for long distance."

"Take my rifle," suggested Thane, handing her his Mantis,

A'lez nodded and accepted the gift, "this I can work with."

"Very well, I will go out then," he said, pausing for a moment, "and just so you know, my rifle contains a small charge inside of it. If you decide to betray us, or if you truly are the instigator of all of this, I can cripple you easily."

A'lez raised her eye brows as the Drell went off, "thanks for the warning."

(#%#()*%^)#(%*^#_%(*&#)

Thane walked out of the bush quietly, the Salarian and Turian were in some sort of talks when he came out into the open.

The two immediately noticed and raised their weapons at him.

He quickly held up his hands, showing that he was of no threat.

The two aliens cautiously made their way towards him, their weapons held up the entire time.

The Salarian was of a darker skin complexion with a heavy scar running down on of it's horns and wore black armor with orange stripes decorating the sides. In it's hand it carried a Vindicator assault rifle and on it's hip was a pistol of some model unknown to Thane.

That spoke volumes of the Salarian's status, as Thane knew just about every weapon ever used in the universe.

The Turian was a dull grey with red lines decorating it's face under it's eyes. It wore armor that Thane recognized as the type issued to C-Sec personal, though it seemed a bit heavier compared to most he'd encountered. In it's hands, it held what Thane recognized as an M-8 avenger assault rifle.

"STG," announced the Salarian, "identify yourself!"

"Thane Krios," he replied calmly,

"Are you the one who dropped us on this rock?" asked the Turian,

"No, I suspect that I am in a similar situation to you two," replied Thane, "I do not know where this is, nor who put me here."

The two aliens seemed to relax slightly, but kept vigilant.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" asked the Turian,

"If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you already," answered Thane,

"That's a pretty bold claim considering you've got two armed-"

The Turian was immediately cut off when a red dot suddenly appeared on his forehead, the message was sent, the Drell had friends in high places.

The avian alien let out a growl of frustration.

Thane was about to continue when he noticed the Salarian had disappeared. A bright orange blade was suddenly pressed against his skin, the Drell turned his head slightly to see the Salarian come out of cloak, an omni-blade held to Thane's neck.

"Call of your friend, or I'll cut your throat," warned the Salarian,

Thane, never one to take threats lying down, moved quickly. With a jab to the Salarian's stomach from his elbow, the Salarian was knocked back. Krios attempted to incapacitate the Salarian quickly by twisting its arm but the alien countered by turning itself in synchronization with its arm, pulling Thane into its back where it promptly tossed him over its shoulder.

But Krios, a master of hand to hand, swiftly landed on his feet where he broke from the Salarian's hand and delivered a strong round house kick to the Salarian's face. The alien was knocked to the ground and by the time it had regained its senses, Thane had already pulled out his Phalanx and had it aimed at its head.

"As I said, if I wanted you dead," he repeated, placing his pistol back in his coat and extending an arm to the downed alien, "I would have killed you already"

The Salarian, hesitant at first, accepted his hand and let the Drell pull him up.

"Alright Thane, we'll talk," said the Salarian, "but I'm still keeping an eye on you."

"I'd expect nothing less."

"Um, hello, a little help over here," called the Turian,

Thane waved at the bushes and the red dot disappeared.

A second later, A'lez came out of the bushes and handed him back the borrowed rifle.

"Make friends?" she asked,

"Of sorts," he responded,

"A'lez," she greeted, holding out her hand, "Spectre"

"Morroth, Salarian Special Task Group," greeted the Salarian,

The Turian sighed before accepting the handshake as well, "Tiro, Citadel Security,"

"You're armor is different than most officer's I've seen," commented A'lez,

"Part of the branch that gets called in to handle the heavy stuff," explained Tiro, "since we aren't shooting each other, I guess we're all in the same mess."

"Pretty much, I was taking out biotic extremists before I met this guy," replied A'lez, gesturing to Thane, "what about you two?"

"Working together actually," replied Tiro, "intelligence found pirates. Smuggling Salarian experimental weapons. Needed cooperation of Citadel security. Sent Tiro to aid squad."

"What he said," Tiro surmised,

"Then we all have something in common," said Thane, "all of have combat experience. I suspect if we run into anymore, they will be of a similar background."

"That sounds about right mon,"

The entire group whipped around to see two new comers exiting the foliage, both human, one female, the other male.

"I told you we'd find others," said the woman,

"Whatever mon," said the male,

"Who are you?" asked Thane, being the first to step up and meet them.

Tiro seemed quite fidgety, his finger hovering just above the trigger of his rifle. Thane suspected that the Turian was not as used to combat as some of them. There was definitely experience in the Turian's eyes, but he most likely had to only deal with gangbangers before instead of full combat.

"Two humans who are probably in the same position as you sexy man," answered the women, stepping in rather close to Thane.

The woman was and Eclipse mercenary, no doubt about it. Thane could tell from the yellow armor and sun marking on the shoulders and chest. Though as far as most Eclipse mercenaries, this one stood out. Her right spaulder was a good deal larger than her right, which was so small it was nearly non-existent.

It reminded him of Zaeed from the old crew.

The woman looked like she could be just as crazy too. Her hair had been buzz cut much like Jack, except for the long blonde hair that made up the Mohawk running down the middle.

Two earrings pierced the lobes of both ears and a tattoo of a dragon could be seen from what was visible of her neck.

The women licked her lips sensually as she stared at Thane with hungry eyes. This understandably, made the Drell a bit nervous. It did not help that she had a very large weapon on her back; Thane again recognized it as an M-100 grenade launcher.

The male was no less strange looking.

He had a very dark skin tone, a wild goatee that was actually braided into miniature dreadlocks, which complimented the larger ones in the man's hair.

"You're Cerberus," realized A'lez,

"Got a problem with that blue girl?" asked the man in a heavy Jamaican accent.

"Uh, no," replied A'lez, "blue girl?"

A'lez was correct, the white and black armor, in addition to the unmistakable symbol the man wore clearly marked him as an operative of Cerberus. It was heavy armor too, which made the man's already imposing 6 foot frame even more imposing.

But the real interesting piece was the shield the man had strapped to his left forearm. It was easily large enough to cover his entire body and Thane spotted submachine gun on the man's hip.

"So, you are all in the same position we are," said the man, "can ya take two more into your group?"

"Could use all the help we can get. Two more could potentially be of help. If only for extra bodies."

"Can you please speak at normal speed," growled the woman,

"I am," replied Morroth,

The woman rolled her eyes.

"So, how are all of you?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip,

"Morroth, Salarian Special Task Group,"

"Tiro, C-SEC"

"A'lez, Spectre"

"Thane Krios," The Drell extended his hand. The woman quickly took it.

"Lydia" she replied giving a wink, "and this voodoo guy over here is Tosh"

"I don't practice voodoo," objected Tosh,

"Whatever," Lydia waved off, "don't suppose you guys have anything to add to this mess we're in."

"Afraid not," A'lez sighed, "what about you two?"

"I woke up in free fall, I think I saw some parachutes go down that way," pointed Tosh,

"Better get going then" decided Tiro,

(%&^$#&#(*&%^#(*&%^(#*%&^))%&#(%&*(#)%#)%&)#%&)#%^)

You ever hear the phrase, "Sleep like a bear", or something to that effect.

Well, Krogan, sleep like Krogan, which happened to be quite heavily.

Which would explain why Wrex didn't wake up until an hour after he'd hit the ground.

When he did, he felt incredibly well rested, in fact, he was quiet happy, except from having dirt shoved up in his face.

After waking up, Wrex immediately realized he'd been kidnapped. But it was nothing that hadn't happened to him before.

So, staying as calm as he would any other day, he checked his weapons and ammo and began to formulate a plan.

It entailed finding out where he was, who'd captured him, and the best way to kill them.

He was just about to settling on tearing off their arms and shoving his shotgun barrel down their throat, when he heard footsteps behind him.

Bringing his shotgun to bear, he whipped around to see a figure standing in his clearing.

"Where the hell did you come from?" asked Wrex,

The figure, clad in Black Terminus armor, pointed up at the tree. Wrex shifted his eyes up to see a few leaves falling.

"You the one who dropped me here?"

The Operative shook his head, no.

"Know where we are?"

Again, no

"Any good with a gun?"

He nodded his head, yes.

"Wanna work together?"

Another nod.

"Are you gonna talk? Or just do body language all day?"

"Body language," the operative spoke in a raspy voice,

Wrex snorted, lowering his Eviscerator.

"Well, I suppose we should start moving," said Wrex, "any ideas?"

The Operative jabbed a thumb to the direction behind him.

"Good as any direction I suppose, let's go,"

Thus the two of them began their trek into the unknown.

The two of them continued their walk for a good half an hour an hour, before something interesting happened.

At the time, Wrex was talking of one of his exploits during his time with Shepard.

"So these punks were going to try and stop us. So Shepard says 'That makes you a criminal. I can kill criminals.' Then the guard says, 'you're bluffing', what a stupid bitch. And so I say 'You're right, they're actually gonna let me eat you.' HAHA!"

The operative remained silent the whole time, politely listening to the Krogan's tales.

"Ah, good times. Before I had to put up with all the politics on Tuchanka, this is actually kind of like a vacation for me," said Wrex, "so what about you any good stories?"

The Operative stopped.

"What? It's okay if you don't," assured Wrex,

The Operative pointed up.

Wrex followed the Operative's finger,

"Oh, well, that's interesting,"

Interesting, was an interesting word.

Hanging just a few feet above them, was a pair of skinned bodies.

Wrex guessed that they were a couple of days old. The blood had already dried up and flies were buzzing around them in swarms.

One was obviously human, the other was definitely Turian.

Each had been hung by the ankle and left to dangle upside down, their mouths wide open, making them look as though they'd gone through some sort of terrible pain.

They smelled horrible too.

"Anyone hungry?" asked Wrex,

The Operative gave him a look through his visor,

"What? Oh, sorry,"

The Operative walked past the Krogan and took out a knife from his armored boot, then used it to cut the vine holding up the two bodies. Both hit the ground with a meaty smack.

Wrex lumbered over to inspect them.

The human was the easiest to decipher. It had been killed through blades, like the pirates from before. Except this one had simply had it's throat gouged out.

The Turian was a bit more of a mystery.

There were no evident slash marks and no signs of death by gunfire. It took a while before Wrex finally found the cause of death, a broken back.

Whoever had done this, was strong, strong enough to break bones.

"We got quite a killer on our hands," observed Wrex, the Operative nodded.

"Quite a mess, isn't it?"

Krogan and Operative jumped to their feet, weapons pointed at the source of the voice.

From the bush, another Krogan, one clad in the distinct armor of the Blood Pack mercenary group, trudged onto the clearing. The Krogan took a moment to look at the bodies, then the Wrex and the Operative.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Wrex,

"Name is Gornol, I'm a member of Blood Pack, and you?"

"Urdnot Wrex, Leader of Clan Urdnot," replied Wrex,

"Urdnot Wrex? The Urdnot Wrex?" asked Gornol, "the one to kill the Thresher Maw?"

"The same,"

"Never thought I'd meet you, much less like this," said Gornol, "do you know what's going on here?"

"Afraid not, I'm just as much in the dark as you," replied Wrex, "but I can tell you one thing. Whatever is going on here, it's gonna involve a lot of killing, by me."

"Heh, glad I'm on your side," chuckled Gornol,

"Are you armed?" asked Wrex,

"I got my weapon right here," Gornol held up an M-451 Firestorm, a flamethrower, Wrex could see that it had been modified to be fed from a tube connecting to a fuel pack on Gornol's back.

"Nice," complimented Wrex, "so, did you have a plan, or were you just waiting around for us."

"I was waiting for someone to show up, but on my way down I saw a mountain. Figure we should head for high ground," suggested Gornol,

"Lead the way," said the Operative,

(#%(*#%&)(*#%^)(#*%&)#(*%&)#(%*&)#(%*&)#%&)#(%*&)#(%*&)#)

Kath was not having a good day. He was supposed to be with his fellow Blue Sun on a raid against the Eclipse. He was their Sargent god damn it!

So how the hell did he get here?

When he'd first awoken, he'd immediately begun to panic. When he'd managed to calm down, he tried to call for help. Nothing, just static!

He still had his Avenger assault rifle, that was a bit of a comfort.

But not a big one.

Kath leaned against a tree and shakily lit a cigarette to try and calm his nerves.

"Fuck me," he muttered as he took a drag of smoke into his lungs. To take his mind of his current predicament, he played a little with the visor of his helmet, switching it from tinted to non-tinted.

It was then that a certain Drell came out from the bushes and into his clearing.

Kath immediately went for his rifle,

"Who the fuck are you? Did you put me here?" demanded Kath,

"Calm down, I'm not here to harm you," assured Thane,

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" asked Kath, "you could be lying, you could just shoot me while I put my gun down."

"If I wanted you dead, I would have asked A'lez to kill you already," replied Thane,

"Who?"

"A'lez, the Asari with her gun pointed at the back of your head,"

"Ha! Nice try but I'm-"

"An idiot," A'lez cut off as she pressed the barrel of her Revenant into the back of Kath's head, "yeah, you are."

"Put the gun away A'lez," said Thane as he and the rest of the group came out into the clearing, "we're here to recruit, not kill."

"Fine," grumbled A'lez,

"Will you cooperate now?" asked Thane,

"S-sure," said Kath,

"Blue sun, do we really need this guy?" asked Lydia, "can't we just shoot him?"

"We need all the help we can get, especially considering we don't know what we're up against," Thane reminded,

"Fine sexy, I'm just saying,"

"You need to stop saying that girl, it's freaking me out," said Tosh,

"Hormonal increases, Drell most human like, natural response to stress," said Morroth,

It was just then that new batch stumbled into the clearing.

"Well what do we have here," said Wrex as he surveyed the group, the Operative and Gornol followed a few moment after.

Wrex's attention stuck on Thane, "I know you, you were with Shepard."

"Thane Krios," said the Drell, "and you are Urdnot Wrex. I assume you are in a similar situation to all of us."

"No memory, and on a strange planet? Pretty much," replied Wrex,

"Though you being here does give me some insight," said Thane,

"What are you talking about?" asked Tiro, "you know this guy?"

"He is clan leader of the Krogan clan Urdnot," explained Thane, "but because he is here, I am now certain of the link between us all."

"What would that be," asked A'lez,

"Look at all of us, Spectre, STG, Eclipse, Blue Sun, Blood Pack, all of are some of the most dangerous people in the universe," explained Thane, "our abductor seems to have a need to capture dangerous individuals."

"Yeah?" asked Gornol, "maybe we should get that Quarian in the tree."

(!#*&%#*(&%^(#)(#*%)(*#^%)#(%^*))#(%&*)#)

This was not a good day for Zekk. He'd woken up, found himself free falling through the air. Then, got his parachute stuck in a tree and to make things worse, his weapons had fallen to ground below.

"God damn it" he grumbled as he tried to wrestle the parachute free,

"Hey, up there!" he heard someone call,

Zekk looked down to see a group of rather random individuals,

"Uh…hi!" he called back, "um, could one of you help me out?"

"I'm on it," said Lydia as she took off her Grenade Launcher,

"No!" protested Thane,

Lydia raised an eyebrow with an amused smile, then handed the weapon to Thane.

"Hold that form me sexy," she purred as she made her way to the tree.

Without warning, she pounced onto the tree and like a monkey, began scaling it with incredible ease. In just a few minutes, she made her way to the branches that held up the Quarian.

"I think I can cut some branches so that he gets loose," she called,

"Do it!" A'lez yelled back,

Lydia unsheathed her knife from her hip and began hacking away at the branches.

Eventually, there was an audible snap, and the chute came loose.

Zekk dropped a full fifteen feet before coming to a stop just a foot or so off the ground.

"Let's, not do that again" he pleaded,

A'lez and Wrex helped the Quarian out of the chute, while Lydia slid back down the tree.

Thane handed Lydia back her grenade launcher.

"Thank you sexy," he said suggestively, "however shall I repay you?"

"Um…not to interrupt," started Zekk, "but, can someone tell me, where the hell are we?"

**End**

**A/N**

**Okay, so at the moment these are just some sample chapters. I want to get a feel as to how people respond to the story before I move on.**

**Please review, preferably every chapter…just kidding, maybe.**

**But yeah, tell me what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know I said the first two chapters was the sample, but I figured that if I was going to give samples, I should at least make a chapter with some more fighting. So, here you go.**

Chapter 3

Welcome to the Jungle

"Um…not to interrupt," started Zekk, "but, can someone tell me, where the hell are we?"

"Sorry kid, we're just as much in the dark as you" replied Wrex,

"Great," groaned Zekk, "oh wait!"

Zekk brought up his Omni tool and began pressing in various commands.

"What're you doing?" asked Kath, trying to peek over the Quarian's shoulder,

"My Omni tool has a GPS," answered Zekk,

"A what?"

"Glactic Positioning System," Zekk hit a few more commands, his head tilted in confusion, then continued pressing in more commands.

"Is something wrong?" asked A'lez, moving over next to the Batarian,

"Yeah, I'm not getting a response," replied Zekk as he continued to work on the system, "weird, won't tell me where we are."

"Probably broken," quipped Gornol, "never trust tech, always fails you when you need it the most."

"No, it's working fine," assured Zekk, "Could be interference from all this greenery, or could be just no signal."

"Then perhaps we should get moving," said Thane as he began to walk,

"Where you going mon?" asked Tosh,

"Toward high ground," replied Thane, "if it is indeed due to interference that the Quarian's GPS is not working, then we should try to find a spot where there is none, also, I want a better look at the surrounding area,"

With that said, Thane continued trekking. Lydia and Wrex immediately started to follow, the others, nervously and almost reluctantly, began to walk as well. Most likely they all realized, they didn't really have a choice, and no one else seemed to have a better plan.

"So, how's Shepard?" asked Wrex as he ducked under a low branch,

"She was in good health the last time I encountered her," replied Thane as he continued to navigate the terrain,

"And Liara?"

"The Asari?" asked Thane, Wrex grunted a yes,

"Shepard asked me not to disclose her current professional status, but she was also in good health the last I saw, if not a big…unstable."

"Yeah, from what I heard, she took Shepard's death the hardest,"

The ground they were traversing was becoming noticeably more of an incline, Thane began to feel the effects as his legs were forced to work harder and his lungs became more burdened.

Soon, Wrex was in the lead, his tough Krogan body easily pushing itself up the mountain with ease.

Thane tried to slow down slightly, but it was of little help. It wasn't long before his damaged lungs caught up with him.

He coughed violently into his hand, spittle covering the inside of his rebreather.

He bended over as the coughs continued, he adjusted the filter in his rebreather and felt sweet dry air refill his lungs, soothing their wounds.

The other party members just spared passing glances as Thane continued to cough, only one stopped by to check up on him.

"Um…are you okay?"

Thane looked up to see the Quarian, the Drell assassin nodded before standing back up.

"Hey, you're rebreather's got a leak!" said Zekk, he quickly reached down into one of the many pouches on his waist, "hold on, I can fix it!"

He continued searching himself until finally he pulled out a thin strip of something and spread it across the puncture in Thane's rebreather, "there, that should fix it."

"My thanks," said Thane,

"Oh, no problem, we Quarian's have to be careful about puncture's in our suit, so we keep sealants handy all the time," Zekk replied bashfully,

"I don't believe I caught your name," realized Thane,

"Oh, uh, you can just call me Zekk,"

"Very well Zekk," said Thane,

"Hey, Krios!" called Wrex from up front with the other's, "get up here! We're almost at the top!"

"I'll be there shortly!" Thane called back, he turned to Zekk, "we should hurry and rejoin with the others."

"Yeah, wouldn't want get stuck out here all alone," said Zekk as he followed after,

"Indeed, it would make it much easier for the enemy to pick us off," said Thane, Zekk paused in his steps as a shiver worked its way down his spine before continuing to follow.

After another half an hour of walking, the group finally found themselves at the top of the mountain they'd been climbing.

"Nice view," commented Tiro,

Indeed, the ledge they'd found gave them a clear view of the entire surrounding area. The Turian saw lush, green, and dense forest for miles. In the distance he heard the high pitched cries of some bird he failed to recognize and the calls of other animals that must have been native to the area.

And the sky, it was the most unusual color, a sort of pink mixed with a light blue. But the biggest kicker, was what was in the sky.

The entire group simply stared up at the sight of three massive moons hanging completely still in the sky.

"My God," breathed Tiro,

"Most…troubling," agreed Morroth,

It didn't take a genius to know that no planets in Citadel or even known space had three moons so large and so close to the planet surface.

They were on an unknown

Kath immediately sat himself down on a nearby rock next to Tiro, his breath's heavy. The Batarian Blue Sun Sargent pulled out another cigarette and lit it, taking a long drag of tobacco.

"You know those things are bad for your lungs right?" Tiro pointed out,

"Fuck off," shot the Batarian, "I need this right now."

"Zekk, are you getting any reading now?" asked Thane,

The young Quarian immediately brought up his Omni tool and began the same process they he'd tried earlier. After a few suspenseful minutes, the Quarian shook his head in dismay.

"No," he said, "I've still got nothing. I don't think its interference anymore. We're in uncharted space."

"Well that's just fucking great," muttered Lydia,

An unbearable silence hung in the air as the group tried to grapple with the reality that they were most likely never to be rescued by outside sources and never going to find their way back home.

"So," said A'lez, "what's the plan now?"

"I'll tell you what the plan is," began Wrex, "we're in uncharted space, no one knows where we are, except the ones who dropped us here. I think it's pretty clear what we should be doing."

Thane caught on, "Find the ones who took us, and use them to return us home."

"Exactly," said Wrex, "they must have a ship or something to drop up here like they did, so all we have to do, is kick their asses, find their ship, and get off this god damn rock."

"Sounds like a plan I can work with," Lydia said eagerly,

"I suppose there's really no alternative," sighed Tiro,

"Best course of action, most likely to succeed in our favor," pointed out Morroth,

"Yeah, doesn't mean I have to like it," Tiro grumbled,

"I don't know mon, I'm getting some bad vibes from this jungle," Tosh said nervously,

"I say we do it," spoke up Kath, "not like we can just wait here for a pick up."

"Let's burn stuff," said Gornol

The Operative, who'd been so quiet most of the group had forgotten about him, made a grunt of agreement.

So we're all in agreement," said Wrex, all of the nodded, "alright, first thing's first. We need a direction to start in."

"Uh…how about that way?" suggested Zekk, pointing out towards the jungle,

"You can't just start walking in a random direction kid," chided Wrex,

"I didn't, I mean, I know," stuttered Zekk, "but that way just seemed the most logical."

"You're mom tell you that?" mocked Kath,

"No," Zekk said to his feet, "but, if you look at where we all landed, we fell in a straight line, see."

Zekk brought up his Omni tool, tapping a few commands and bringing up an orange holographic representation of the jungle.

"I made it when we were walking," he explained, "from the data I gathered, we fell one by one, here."

The hologram created a line across the jungle canopy,

"You see, in a straight line," showed the Quarian, "so, the ship is probably in one of those directions."

"How'd you choose which direction?" asked Tosh,

"Uh…I guessed," he admitted shyly,

"Jesus Christ the kid just guesses which way to-"

"That's enough out of you," growled Wrex, cutting off Kath, "at least we have a start."

Morroth, walked out to the ledge, his reptilian like eyes squinting as he surveyed the area. His mind drawing a mental line that mirrored the hologram Zekk had created for them.

"That way," he announced, pointing in his decided direction.

The entire group turned to him skeptically, expecting some sort of explanation.

"Jungle seems to thin out in direction, logical path of ship when flying in vegetation, land where it is easier, no trees to cause crashes," he surmised quickly, then took in a deep breath of air before adding, "simple deduction."

"Well you heard the lizard, let's get going," ordered Wrex, immediately starting the trek back down the mountain,

"You're just gonna take his word for it?" asked Kath,

"Yeah," Wrex replied as he passed the Batarian,

"Just like that? How do you know he's right?" demanded the Blue Sun,

Wrex turned back for a brief moment, "I don't, but I'd rather do something and be wrong, then sit around on my ass all day, waiting for something to happen. Whoever dumped us here is somewhere on this planet, and I intend to give them a piece of my mind when I find them. So if you wanna wait around until they come up and do whatever it is they want to, go ahead. But I'm going out there and meeting them."

With that said, the Krogan continued on, the rest of the group following after.

"Fuck," muttered Kath as he reluctantly did the same,

((#*%)(#%*^)(#%^*)_#%*(#%#)#%*(^#%^))

"I say this is some sort of sick experiment," said Lydia, "some whacko, decided to gather up a bunch of people, and put them through some tests, just to see what would happen."

"I guess that's a possibility," replied Tiro as he stepped over a very large root,

"Theory, perhaps Geth," offered Morroth, "no intelligence on Geth technology. Unknown, many possibilities present. Not even STG has something solid. Could be the ones behind this."

"I really don't think the Geth would be interested in something like this," replied Zekk, "the Geth, for as long as the Quarian have known, never leave the home planet. And they aren't interested in organics, just furthering their own machinery."

"Yeah, plus there haven't been any reported sightings of Geth for years now," added A'lez, "not even Spectres have reported any sightings."

"Maybe its de Collectors" said Tosh, "I remember sometime back, they was scooping up human colonies for de Reapers, they might be expanding their horizon."

A dark could descended on the group at the mention of the Reapers. They all knew of the sentient machines with technology light years ahead of anything any species currently had. The possibility that they were the ones behind it, was a chilling thought.

But then again, Commander Shepard had defeated them quite some time ago, destroyed every single one of them. At least, that's what everyone believed.

"I hope you're wrong Tosh," said Tiro, "cause if you aren't, then it'd have been best if all our parachutes malfunctioned during free fall."

"The Collectors aren't good enough to work with such precision and they rarely go past the Terminus System," Thane said from the front, "I was taken from the middle of the Citadel, there's no possible way for a Collector to be that stealthy and I doubt they would have gone unnoticed."

"Yeah, and how do you know that?" asked Kath skeptically,

"I fought them, I helped destroy them in the Omega 4 system, I know them," Thane turned back around and continued walking.

"That shut him up," Wrex whispered with amusement,

(#()%^#)(%&^#)%(*_)#%*&)#(%&)

Morroth walked steadily and purposefully in the middle of the group as they made their way through the jungle. His positioning was based off his well-practiced military mind.

Those in the back were susceptible to being picked off silently. Those in the front were the most likely to encounter danger when it reared its head. Thus, the middle was the safest, if he was attacked, the others would know and aid him, plus, there were many other's around him, lessening the chances for himself to be singled out.

It also gave him a good chance to study his companions.

Three mercenaries, all from different groups, that could be trouble. If their loyalties to their factions came into play, they may begin killing each other. Which one, he wondered, would be most worth keeping.

The Batarian from the Blue Suns seemed shaky, nervous, most likely a drug addict. He didn't seem to work well with others, and he was always keeping his Avenger rifle close.

The Human female from the Eclipse seemed relatively steady and remained incredibly casual about the situation. Her Grenade launcher would be valuable, and she'd already demonstrated a remarkable ability to climb.

The Krogan with a green head plate from Blood Pack was a bit of a mystery. So far he'd been quiet throughout the entire trip, just lumbering along with them. His flamethrower could be useful in the jungle like terrain that they were in but Morroth decided to reserve judgment on him for the time being.

"Hey hold up a moment," Gornol suddenly said,

The whole line came to a sudden half,

The Krogan scanned the trees the trees, his hand carefully upholstering his sidearm from his hip.

With impressive speed the Krogan raised his pistol and fired off two quick shots.

The sound echoed through the forest.

Morroth decided the Krogan was a bit too…loud.

Suddenly, crashing was heard from above, followed by two consecutive thuds as something landed on the ground a few meters away.

Gornol reholstered his pistol and casually walked towards them,

Kath raised his rifle in that direction, his finger hovering just over the trigger.

Gornol bent down and grabbed something, then held it up for all of them to see.

It was a monkey. Two to be exact.

Each about three feet tall and covered in black hair,

"You killed a monkey?" Tiro questioned, "Why?"

"I don't know about you, but I don't plan on going to bed with an empty stomach," replied Gornol as he slung the two animals over his shoulder, "besides, aren't you interested why some earth born creatures are on an unknown planet?"

The question struck a cord with all of them.

Why was a monkey that was clearly identifiable as being from Earth, not on Earth, but on some alien planet in the middle of uncharted space?

"You think, maybe they were dropped here too?" asked A'lez, she mulled over the idea for a moment before saying, "yes, that would make the most sense. Our abductor seems fond of taking things from different planets. Us included."

"Well, we should be glade they did," said Gornol, "I hear monkey meat tastes good."

(#(%^)#(*%^)#%_#%&*_#*%&_)#%&_#%_)

As Morroth had told them, the Jungle gradually became less and less dense as the group of aliens continued walking.

Trees became fewer and farther between, being instead replaced with taller grass, larger bushes, and giant moss covered boulders scattered across the terrain.

Zekk, though incredibly nervous about the whole situation, found the planet a refreshing breath of air compared to Omega.

Sure, they'd been abducted and put on a planet in the middle of uncharted space, but hey, at least the view was nice. He wondered if perhaps, the home world had looked like this once, before his race had transformed it into a floating space station the size of a planet.

He wondered what kind of animals were around here.

He wondered, if maybe, Kat would have liked it here.

Kat, he now found himself wondering if he'd see her again. He hoped so, he really wanted to.

A lot of his gang members had teased him for his, supposedly, childish infatuation with the human female. But it didn't seem childish to him.

She'd treated him well and like one of her own from the day he'd met her. Was it so wrong for him to like her if that was the case?

So deep in thought was Zekk, that he didn't notice everyone stopping, and thus, accidently walked into the back of Urdnot Wrex.

"Ah!" he cried out, initially going to ask what the hold up was, he noticed that everyone had abandoned the line formation and gathered around something in the front, "what's going on?"

Wrex moved to the side and let Zekk into the circle,

What the Quarian saw, made him wish he hadn't.

"Like I said," reminded Tosh, "bad vibes."

In front of them was a tree, and like any other tree it was tall, large, and had wide reaching branches. Someone had taken advantage of the branches part.

Hanging from almost every branch, were bodies, all skinned and strung up by their ankles to dangle like ornaments on a Christmas tree.

A variety of species hung on the tree, ranging from Human, to Turian, and even Krogan. Dried blood caked the branches and the dirt beneath, the smell of rotting flesh choked the air, and flies buzzed around, slowly nibbling away at the bodies.

"My god," gasped Tiro, trying to keep his lunch down.

Kath quickly lit a cigarette and began to smoke.

Thane began to pray them

Zekk quickly turned away, unable to stand such a sight.

The Operative; was the only one to move forward to try and get a better view, jabbing one of the bodies, a human, with his rifle.

"Old," he spoke, "Couple of days old"

"Just like the ones we found earlier," realized Wrex as he joined the Operative,

The Krogan began to walk around the trunk of the tree, his eyes held up as he surveyed the tree. When he reached the other side, he was confronted with a new sight.

"Hey, come over here!" he called,

The group walked over,

"Take a look at this," Wrex pointed their eyes to what looked like a crudely carved stone shrine. It was covered with tribal like carvings and had vines snaking their way up from it's base and to it's top. The shrine itself had three levels, each with their own sort of cubby hole. Three on the third, two on the second, and one on the top.

It was what was inside the holes that caught everyone's attention, skulls.

Three human, two on the bottom, one on the second; one Turian skull on the second, a Salarian on the third, and a Krogan on the top

"That's, morbid," commented Tiro,

"Kind of reminds me of a movie I saw back on earth," commented Lydia,

Wrex ignored their chatter and stepped up to the shrine, examining the skulls.

"Why would they keep skulls?" asked Thane,

"Trophies," Gornol said, stepping up, "some warriors in blood pack keep mementos of great fights."

"Like skulls?"

"Skulls, weapons, pieces of armor," Gornol listed off, "but yeah, like skulls."

Wrex picked up the Krogan skull from the shrine and examined it,

"This Krogan died from being stabbed through his head plate," sticking two fingers through two side by side cuts at the top of the skull,

"What's so great about that?" asked Kath,

"Not much, except when you take into account that our plates are enough to break bone and that almost nothing short of gun fire can penetrate them," replied Wrex,

Kath noticeably winced.

"Whatever they used, was sharp, sharp enough to cut through a Krogan's head like butter,"

"We're dealing with someone that's not to be taken lightly," said Thane,

"Yeah, that would explain-"

The skull in Wrex's hands suddenly exploded.

The entire group turned around just as gunfire exploded through the foliage.

Everyone hit the floor and dove for cover.

Wrex, Gornol and Thane hid themselves behind a boulder larger enough to shelter all three of them. Zekk, A'lez, and Tiro ducked behind a fallen tree, Kath, Lydia and the Operative found cover behind the various trees around the area, and Tosh immediately dropped down behind his hand held shield. Morroth, was nowhere to be seen.

Thane poked his head out from cover to get a glimpse of their attacker,

"Vorcha!" he called out, "at least two dozen of them!"

"Why the hell are they shooting at us?" Lydia called out over the gunfire,

"Who knows, why don't you go ask them" Tiro shouted, "I'm personally gonna stick to my rifle!"

"Sounds like a plan!" agreed A'lez,

Together the two of them popped up from the tree and began to spray the Vorcha ranks with gunfire.

The Vorcha immediately scattered, with three of their number being too slow, becoming peppered with holes.

"We don't have a choice now," said Thane, "they won't be inclined to talk now that we've already returned fire."

"Good, I was getting bored without something to kill," growled Wrex, without another word or thought for his own safety, the Krogan Battle Master jumped out from the boulder and began firing off his shotgun, ignoring any stray shots that ricochet off his shields.

Thane pulled out his Mantis Sniper rifle and quickly got to work.

The Vorcha were attacking down from an incline, which meant that they had slightly higher ground. But that would hardly be a problem for Thane.

Calming himself down and taking in a deep breath, he sighted his first target. A vorcha with an assault rifle, Thane lined up his shot and pulled the trigger.

There was a resounding crack as the Vorcha suddenly lost its head.

Thane quickly switched over to another target, another crack of his rifle as the Vorcha took a bullet through the eye.

He switched again, a third crack and a Vorcha suddenly found it very hard to breathe, especially with his throat full of blood.

Tosh hid behind his shield, letting the Vorcha's shots deflect of its sturdy frame. Walking tanks the other operatives had called the Guardians, because of their heavy armor and powerful shields.

Tosh put those traits to good use. With his shield in one hand and special M-358 Talon submachine gun in the other, he gradually turtled his way up the hill, peeking out every now and then to fire quick bursts at the aliens.

Two of them rushed at him with shotguns, their bullets smashing against his shield but leaving him unscathed.

He quickly sighed one and fired a sustained burst into it's chest, dropping it to the ground in a pool of its own blood.

The second was upon him quickly, but Tosh suddenly lashed out with his shield and knocked it right off it's feet. Without missing a step his brought his foot down on the primitive alien's head, again and again until finally there was a sickening crack and the Vorcha's eyes rolled into the back of it's head.

The Operative, slipped into the cool calm that he always went into when fighting.

His advanced HUD system quickly identified the targets, quickly formulating a strategy, he braced himself for the fight.

Unclipping a grenade from his belt, he hit the detonator, counted to three and chucked it at the hill.

The grenade, thanks to his waiting, exploded in midair, not killing any of the hostiles but definitely disorienting them, leaving the Operative free to use his Mattock to pick them off one by one, until six new bodies were on the ground.

Lydia, did not slip into a cool and calm state. She slipped into an adrenaline fueled state of ecstasy as the rush of battle filled her veins.

Armed with her Shuriken submachine gun, she fired into the ranks of the Vorcha, savoring each kill as her somewhat wild but controlled bursts cut down fugly alien after fugly alien.

She cackled as one of them lost its arm and screamed into the air as blood sprayed over the foliage, she put it down with a quick burst to the alien's head.

As she loaded in a new thermal clip, Lydia noticed a group of the primitive aliens making their way down the hill via the side in an attempt to flank them.

A smile touched her lips,

Holstering her submachine gun, she took out her grenade launcher.

She carefully aimed the launcher and fired. The explosive detonated right in the middle of the group, blowing them all to pieces and sending bloody chunks of meat through the air.

"Boom," she chuckled,

Tiro, was part of C-SEC's special division, comparable to earth S.W.A.T team's he'd read about in his earlier days. In C-SEC's special division, you were always told to think outside the box and use every advantage.

Tiro, excelled at that.

Using his Omni-tool, the Turian activated his Tech Armor. His body became covered in holographic orange plates, but despite their appearance, these plates dramatically increased his shielding.

Which meant that he was free to pop out from the tree and spray the hostile Vorcha with fire from his Avenger assault rifle, and if his rifle wasn't enough,

A Vorcha charged at him,

His arm began to glow blue, he thrust it out and sent a blue ball of biotic energy spiraling into the Vorcha, the ball tore the alien apart into bloody bits.

Yeah, he had his biotics too.

"Where the hell's Morroth?" yelled Tiro,

"Don't know, take care of yourself for now!" growled Kath as he continued spraying,

"They've got Varren!" A'lez warned,

True enough; the dog like alien beasts suddenly came rushing down the hill, jaws salivating at the thought of killing prey.

One of the alien hounds jumped at Wrex but was quickly blasted out of the air by a well-placed shotgun blast. Another lunged at him, Wrex easily stepped aside and kicked the dog in the face, then stomped his foot onto its neck, snapping it instantly.

Another trio of hounds came at the group,

Gornol stepped out and unleashed a torrent of hellish fire, the flames roasted the alien hounds making the yelp in pain as they slowly burned to death.

The Krogan let out a low chuckle,

"Keep shooting!" screamed a Vorcha, "kill! Kill all!"

His rant was cut short by the sudden appearance of an Omni-blade in his chest.

Morroth quickly retracted the blade and grabbed the next Vorcha, activating the blade again and slicing it across the alien's throat, sending out a fine mist of blood.

By now the remaining Vorcha noticed him and began diverting some of their firepower towards him. Acting quickly, he hid behind a sturdy tree and pulled out his Vindicator assault rifle and began blind firing around the corner to try and make the alien's put their heads down.

Morroth suddenly heard the sound of biotics powering up, he peeked his head out just enough to see a biotic shockwave tear it's way up the hill and send at least four of the Vorcha flying across the field.

One that had managed to avoid the shockwave was sent flying just far when A'lez slammed into it with a biotic charge.

"You okay?" she asked,

Morroth nodded,

The remaining Vorcha, four in total, decided to do the smart thing and run.

"Don't let them escape!" yelled Thane,

A'lez didn't even bother to ask why , she immediately went running after the aliens with the rest of the group following after.

The Asari spectre glided through the plant life, the Vorcha whispered in and out of her sight as she pursued them through the dense foliage.

"Run!" they called, "Run! Ghosts! Ghosts!"

Ghosts? What Ghosts? They weren't Ghosts!

A'lez's pursuit came to a bitter halt as she finally lost sight of them, the Asari burst out into a small clearing, unfortunately she couldn't tell which way the Vorcha had gone.

"Damn it!" she cursed,

Thane suddenly burst out after her,

"I lost them," she confessed,

Thane dropped to his knees and surveyed the ground, after a brief moment, he pointed,

"That way, hurry!"

Thane sprinted across the clearing,

"I'll stay and direct the others," called the Asari,

Thane didn't respond as he tore through the jungle, his well trained ears hearing the quietest scuffles of feet up ahead.

His pursuit, was stopped cold when a bone chilling roar suddenly tore through the air, echoing clear into the jungle. It sounded like pure primal fury, like a beast had just taken down it's prey.

Thane doubled his speed, running with all his might, until finally he found the Vorcha.

Sort of

Thane had seen blood shed before, plenty of it. He'd seen horrors that would make most men throw up or faint. But this, was worse.

The Vorcha had been quite literally, torn to pieces.

Slash marks of some sort of blade covered their bodies, limbs were severed or torn off, blood soaked the earth, and one had it's entire chest thorn open.

The bush behind his rustled, he whipped around to find Wrex crashing out from the greenery. The Krogan immediately saw the bodies,

"Nice work," he complimented,

"I didn't do this," protested Thane, "something, someone else did."

As the rest of the group made their way through the jungle to them, Wrex knelt down by the mutilated bodies.

"I've seen this work before," said Wrex, "before I was taken, I found two pirates cut up in a similar fashion."

"And this wound" he said, turning to the Vorcha with a giant hole in it's chest, "I've seen that before too."

"I was only a minute behind them," said Thane,

"Impossible," said Tosh, "if you was only a minute behind, you'd have gotten here in time."

"No, it was only a minute," assured Thane, "whoever did this, was fast and efficient. It did this, then left without a trace."

The thought sent chills through his veins.

"Well, there goes our only hope of knowing what the hell's going on here," muttered Lydia, "ya think they were in the same boat as us?"

"I'm not sure, but I know for a fact that they weren't the ones responsible for our predicament," answered Thane,

"When I was chasing them," said A'lez, "I heard one of them yell 'Ghosts!'"

"Ghosts? We're dealing with Ghosts now?" mocked Kath,

"Might have been referring to me," suggested Morroth, "Vorcha primitive, not bright, might have been scared of my cloak."

"Nah," said Gornol, "Vorcha are stupid, but they're not that stupid."

The group remained silent for a brief moment, before Wrex finally broke it.

"Well, we're obviously not gonna get any answers here," he said, "let's get back to walking. I want to cover more ground before it gets dark, whenever the hell that is."

One by one, the group began to resume their trek towards their original destination.

Tosh, rubbed a shark tooth he kept around his neck to ward off evil spirits. He was just about to follow after the group, when he suddenly felt a cold finger run down his spine.

He whipped around, gun up, his eyes scanning the area. When he saw nothing, he slowly lowered his weapon, his eyes still darting around the bushes and trees.

His vision suddenly stopped on a particular tree, there was nothing there but he felt like he needed to stare at it.

His heart began to pound, sweat began to develop on his forehead.

A hand suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

His head jerked to see A'lez,

"Hey, the groups moving on, you coming?"

"Yeah blue girl," he whispered as he began to walk, taking a last glance at the tree, "yeah blue girl, I'm going blue girl."

(#$(*%()#%^)(%*^_#%_%#^)#()%*&(#%*^)#)%)%#%)#%)#_%)

Eyes watched as the two last figures left the clearing.

"**Yeah blue girl"**

"**Yeah blue girl"**

"**I'm going"**

"**Yeah, Yeah"**

"**I'm going blue girl"**

"**blue girl"**

"**blue girl"**

"**blue girl"**

"**I'm going"**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

First Contact is Always a Mess

"God, my feet are killing me," whined Kath as he rubbed his sore feet whilst sitting down on a hard rock,

Wrex scoffed in disgust, he and his fellow Krogan had opted to continue standing, while the rest of their group sat down for some much needed rest. They'd been walking for, according to Zekk, 10 hours with small insufficient breaks in-between hard and long treks.

Amazingly enough, the sun was still up. It seemed just on the verge of beginning to set, but there was still enough light that Wrex insisted that they continue moving on.

It was only thanks to the compassionate intervention of Thane that the group got any breaks at all. They weren't as tough as Krogan, Thane had reminded. Wrex, begrudgingly conceded, stating that if Thane had been chosen by Shepard for a suicide mission, he must know what he's talking about.

"I haven't marched like that since my days in the military," groaned Tiro as he sat down slumped against a tree,

Thane sat himself on the ground, trying to recuperate after such long and strenuous activity was always hard on him due to his condition.

At the moment his lungs heaved pathetically to try and feed him the oxygen he needed, each inflation brought great strain and pain to him.

He coughed violently into his hands a few times, his attacks were getting worse.

Thane took in a deep breath, held it in for a few moments, and then slowly let it out. He repeated the process a dozen times, until finally, he felt well again.

It had been a technique the Salarian Doctor Mordin Solus had taught him, the doctor was always going on incredibly long and fast speeches; as such he developed a way to gain the most oxygen in the most efficient way possible.

He'd taught it to Thane as a method of control his condition.

"You okay sexy?"

Thane looked up to see Lydia sitting down next him, her body suggestively posed towards him.

"I'm fine now," he assured her, "though I fear my condition will affect the group."

"What is wrong with you anyway?" she asked,

"I have Kepral's Syndrome," he answered, "a type of disease only found in Drell."

"What's it do?"

"It erodes the ability of my lungs to take in oxygen, eventually it will spread out to the rest of my body," explained Thane, "then I will die."

"That must suck," Lydia commented dryly as she leaned back against a tree, "Me, I hope to die in a blaze of gun fire and explosions. The thought of dying in some bed…just don't sit right with me."

"You don't hope to die peacefully?" inquired the Drell,

Lydia raised an eyebrow incredulously,

"Do I look like the peaceful type to you?" she asked, gesturing to herself.

"I see,"

"Yeah," she replied, "I'm a merc to the core, chances are I'll die in a gunfight or in some horrible explosion. The way I see it, I'd best do what I want to do before that happens."

"Is that why you are so casual?"

Lydia shrugged, "I guess, I think I've just accepted what'll happen to me. Provided I never thought I'd go out like this, but hey, one end's just as good as another."

"I also accepted my fate," said Thane, "I started killing all the sinful that I could find. Trying to make the world a better place before I left it, so that my son wouldn't have to grow up like I did."

"You've got a rugrat?"

"I do, his name is Kolyat, I've recently been seeing him again, trying to reconnect,"

"And how's Mrs. Drell?"

"My wife died a long time ago," he replied,

"Oh…shit, my bad," apologized Lydia,

"It's alright," said Thane; then asked, "do you wish to do anything before you pass on?"

Lydia smiled seductively, "well, I've always wanted to know what it would be like to kiss a Drell."

Thane blinked once, shuffled around a bit, unsure how to respond.

The rest of their time together was relatively silent.

Tosh, sat a bit of a distance away from the group. His mind still in a spiritual like trance as he feverishly rubbed the shark tooth necklace around his neck.

He couldn't stop thinking, about that one moment he had back when they'd found the dead Vorcha. Something had been there, he knew it. But he'd seen nothing, it was almost as if whatever it was had been not of the existence.

"Ghost!" the Vorcha had screamed,

Maybe, no, that was crazy talk. But, what if-

"You religious?" interrupted a voice,

Tosh turned to see the blue girl talking down at him from a root that had raised itself up from the ground then plunged head first back into the dirt.

"You got a problem with that?" he asked,

"Not really, but you should be warned that you're feeding a sterotype by rubbing that necklace of yours," she replied,

"It's my culture," he shot back, "I'll not go back on it just because it 'feeds a sterotype'"

"I'm not judging," she explained, "just making an observation."

After a brief silence, Tosh asked, "You're people, do they have a god?"

A'lez sighed before dropping down from her perch, "not really, we believe that the universe is a consciousness, and that when we die we'll all meld back into it."

"So you don't have anyone to ask for protection?"

"Some of us have the goddess Athame, why?"

"You'd best start praying blue girl, I know I am," he advised,

"You don't seem like a man easily intimidated," she said as though it were a matter of fact,

Tosh turned to face her, "How much do ya know?"

A'lez smiled, "Jonathan Tosh, born on earth on the island of Jamaica. Was a local street thug till picked up by Cerberus. Is known to be an agent used to deal with "dirty deeds", was responsible for the deaths of 2 Asari commandos, 3 Krogan, 4 Salarian, and 10 Batarian, and 1 Turian Spectre. I know quite a bit."

"We gonna have a problem?" challenged Tosh,

"No," replied A'lez, "but most people with your kind of experience isn't afraid of much,"

Tosh remained quiet, before finally replying, "There's something out there, waiting for us, and I don't think any of us are ready for it."

The tension his statement created; was broken when Wrex suddenly yelled, "Alright, time to move, you've had enough rest!"

There was a collective groan as they all rose from their feet and began to march again.

After what seemed to be another two hours of marching across the harsh and unforgiving terrain, Thane finally decided to speak up.

"Wrex," The Krogan turned, "I think we should stop for the day. It's almost dark, and we'll need time to find a good place to camp."

"I don't know, I still think we should push on a bit further," replied Wrex,

"We're all tired, I'd rather we wait a bit longer and encounter the enemy when we're at full strength, then encounter them now when we're all exhausted from the march," reasoned the Drell,

Wrex pondered the thought for a moment, before finally saying, "Alright, we'll find a place to camp. Everyone spread out and start looking!"

Zekk, who was struggling to catch his breath, managed to squeeze out a, "Thanks for getting him to stop, I wasn't sure how much longer I could last."

Thane nodded a reply, then joined the others in finding an acceptable spot to spend the night.

"Don't spread out too far," warned the Drell, "if one of you dies we need to know and if you stray too far you'll be an easy target to pick off."

With that morbid comment the group huddled much closer together.

After some time searching, the group found the perfect spot.

"It'll do," decided Wrex,

The group had found shelter next to an extremely large rockface that curved in slightly so that a bit of stone hung out without any support, sort of like a small ceiling that they could hide their heads under.

With A'lez's salvaged parachute, the group even gave themselves some improvised bedding so that they wouldn't need to sleep on the hard dirt floor or the jungle.

They also managed to start a fire with a little bit of help from Gornol's flamethrower, and before long, the two monkeys the Krogan had shot were gutted and roasting above the open flames.

Before long the group was chowing down on the primate meat that, while simple, fed them well. Save for Zekk, who ate nutrient paste as all Quarian did.

"I've been wondering," announced Tiro as he bit off the last remaining meat off a bone, "why do you think our kidnappers, whoever they are, left us with our guns?"

A pause hung in the air before Kath suggested, "maybe they're just arrogant pricks, think they don't need to take away our guns."

"maybe they're just stupid," Lydia offered,

"You really think they'd be stupid enough to do that?" asked Zekk,

"Trust me kid, if you'd seen as much as I have, you wouldn't be surprised as to how stupid some people can be,"

"Perhaps, they do not need to take away our weapons," said Morroth, "perhaps, so capable that they can easily over power us. Or maybe, wish to test themselves."

"Maybe they don't want to," grunted Gornol, "maybe, were meant to have our weapons, maybe, they want to fight."

That brought an abrupt end to the whole conversation and for a good amount of time, no one did anything except watch the crackling fire.

"Well, whatever the case," said Wrex, "I'm for sleep, in fact, we all should be."

Lydia snorted, "yes daddy,"

"I'm serious," growled Wrex, "if we meet our kidnappers tomorrow, we need to be at full strength. But we're gonna need a watch."

The Operative immediately stood up.

"You volunteering?"

The Operative nodded,

"Good, wake up whoever you want in an hour to take your place," ordered the Krogan, "if anyone needs to take a piss, take someone with you."

"What is this, the boy scouts?" whined Kath,

"Fine, go out into the jungle all alone so that you can get stabbed in the back while you're pissing," Wrex shot back before laying down on the ground, "good night"

The other's followed suit, most lying down on the ground. Thane lay against a fallen log, he found that laying down to sleep restricted his lungs and that sitting up was much better.

Lydia, for whatever reason, decided to take a spot next to him.

Thane thought about asking her to move, but found it out of his hands when she immediately began to slumber.

The Drell sighed, closed his eyes, and fell to sleep.

As the Operative stood watch, he scanned the vegetation with his eyes as well as his armor. His HUD was highly sophisticated, allowing him to catch the smallest amount of movement, or see the tiniest heat signature.

Which was why today's events disturbed him greatly; not just because he'd been dropped on an alien planet with a bunch of complete strangers; but because the sophisticated technology he wore was of the highest quality, it had no match.

The Jamaican, the Cerberus agent, had acted as though he'd seen something back where they'd fought the Vorcha. Yet, with all his gadgets and abilities, he'd seen nothing. Not the smallest speck of movement; or the dimmest glow of heat.

According to his helmet, there had been nothing, but according to his instincts, there had indeed been a pair of eyes watching them.

That could mean only one thing, their kidnapper was even more advanced.

The thought did not sit well with the Operative.

(#(%*()#%*^)#%*_#&%_#&%_#&_%_#%&_#%&*_)#%*()#)

Tiro was awake, but he really didn't want to be.

Last night he'd been the second to last one of the group to take the watch, meaning he'd been rudely woken up while he'd been blissfully enjoying a nice dream.

After getting that Batarian to take the next watch, Tiro had tried to get as much sleep in as possible before they were told to move out.

Thus, the Turian closed his eyes and lay on the soft floor, hoping that sleep would take him back into her soft bosom.

Unfortunately, at the moment, he was getting the cold shoulder.

But he persisted until a foot kicked him in the gut and snapped him out of his fight for rest.

"Ugh," he groaned, reluctantly sitting up, "I'm awake, I'm awake" he assured, lest he get another foot to the gut.

The first thing he picked up now that he was forcibly pushed into the morning was the sound of the fire and the smell of…food?

"Do we have anything for breakfast?" he dared to ask the Asari standing over him,

"Yup," she replied, taking a taunting bite of a delicious smelling fish that had been skewered on a stick and cooked to perfection.

Tiro furrowed his eyebrows, "Where'd you get that?"

"That Drell did some scouting," she explained with a mouth full of food, "turns out there's a shallow river full of them about a third of a mile from here. Then Wrex just started shooting them and cooking them."

As if on cue, the Krogan Battlemaster crashed out from the vegetation, his hand holding what looked like an entire school of slivery fish.

Thane and Zekk came out not too far behind, carrying a couple of fish as well, though it was highly doubtful that Zekk would be participating in any of the actual eating of the fish.

"Well, it's better than nothing," decided the Turian,

"Finally," grumbled Kath, "I'm starving,"

Gornol pushed past the four eyed alien and unsheathed a knife, while uttering a , "if you want any you better help."

The threat quickly got Kath on his feet, before long most of them were busing gutting the feast of fish and skewering them on sharpened sticks to cook over the fire.

Soon the air was filled with the delectable smell of their meal.

The group ate hungrily, save for the Operative who explained that he'd eaten earlier. No one cared enough to wonder how and when.

It was fortunate that they'd caught so many, as the two Krogan of the group ate them one whole, head and tail, in a single bite.

"Alright, time to move out," announced Wrex when the last of the fish had been eaten, "hope you all got a good rest, gonna be another long walk."

The group didn't even bother to groan as they all followed after their "leader".

(#(%)*)#(%*)(#*%)#(*%)#%*)#%(*)#()%*)#(%&*)

When the last of them had left, an invisible figure dropped down from the trees, it's feet making not a sound as it landed.

It carefully scowered the campsite, it's eyes taking in all that it saw. Nothing was lost on it, the figure had learned much from watching the group and soon, it would be time to reveal itself to them.

The figure moved towards the pile of fish bones and carefully picked one up.

"**I'm going"**

(W*%)(*#%(#&*%^)(#*%&)(#%*#&%()#%&*)(*#%&)(#%*^)Q#%^*)

"man, I wish we had some ship or something," grumbled Kath,

"Or one of those Alliance tanks," offered Lydia, "what are they called again?"

"Makos?" answered Tosh,

"Makos! That's right! Man, those things can go anywhere!"

"I'd like a ship myself," said A'lez, "then we could get off this world and go home."

"Personally looking forward to meeting our abductors myself," announced Morroth, that statement gained him more than a couple stares, "wish to gain information," he explained.

"Bad vibes," muttered Tosh, "ship would be nice."

Strangely enough, not 20 had they been walking, then their wish was actually granted.

"No. Way."

Kath's words of awe summed up all their feelings.

There, in the middle of a wide clearing, propped nose up on a boulder; was a drop shuttle. And despite the obvious damage to its white hull and the vines that covered it's structure, it was the single most beautiful thing the group had seen in their time on this planet.

Kath whooped with enthusiasim and nearly charged to the ship, only for Wrex to stop him in mid stride.

"What the hell?"

"Take a moment and look at the damn thing," growled Wrex,

Kath did and found his enthusiasm greatly dampened.

At least six bodies littered the clearing around the drop shuttle, obviously they'd been there a long time as the meat had disappeared and left only their bones.

"Let's take this slow," said Wrex, "this could be a trap."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement,

Tosh was elected to go in first because his shield granted him the greatest amount of protection, followed by Tiro who had his tech armor, then Zekk who could provide mechanic support.

While they moved in from the front, Morroth would go under cloak to the other side to make sure no one was hiding behind it, waiting to strike.

The rest of them spread out around the edge of the clearing to provide support.

The group of three inched carefully towards what could potentially be their way off of the foreign planet.

Tosh felt small beads of sweat roll down his dark skin as he took step after step to the shuttle, his submachine gun always pointed at it.

As he continued forward, he noticed one of the bodies by his feet.

The skeleton had been well age, it was recognizably human, but the most disturbing thing about the skeleton was that it was actually only half a skeleton. Something had sliced clean through the man's body and split the man in half.

It wasn't the most comforting thought to have considering the situation they were in.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the team reached the shuttle.

Tiro stepped out in front of his human teammate and walked towards the shuttle's closed doors. The Turian motioned to the Cerberus agent that he would open the door.

Tosh nodded, steeling himself for the potential danger.

Tiro held up three fingers.

Two

One

The turian dragged the door open, there was a quick buzz of moment. Tosh's finger curled around the trigger of his weapon, but soon realized that it was unneeded.

Another body had fallen out of the shuttle, this one obviously Krogan.

Tosh calmed himself and released the breath he didn't even know he was holding.

He crept up to the entrance and gave the interior of the shuttle a quick scan.

It looked relatively safe despite the damaged seats and dirty floor.

Tosh jerked his head, motioning for Zekk to get in and check the thing for traps.

The Quarian took a deep breath and moved in to the shuttle, his technology oriented eyes immediately going to work on possible places where one could put a bomb or sabotage the vehicle.

Admittedly, everyone expected the ship to blow up and take the team of three with it.

But after a full five minutes had passed and Zekk exited the shuttle with the all clear, the team felt a collective wave of relief wash over them.

Thane was the first one to take a step forward to the shuttle.

"What kind of condition is it in?" asked Thane as he met up with a recovering Zekk,

"Weirdly enough it's not that badly damaged," replied the Quarian, "some structural damage, a bit rough on the inside, on of the fins is bent, and the hood looks like it took a beating. Other than that, it seems to be in working condition. It's just a matter of getting it to start up. After sitting there for who knows how long it's been there. The coupling between and the power supply and the engine is probably gonna need some work."

"Can you get it to work?"

Zekk let a breath through his teeth, "It'll take some time, probably a day at most, but I should be able to get it to fly, but even if I do, I can't fix the air supply, the canister was destroyed."

"It's alright, just get it to fly,"

Zekk nodded and went back to examine the ship,

"What's the word?" asked Lydia as the other members crowded around,

"Zekk thinks he can get the shuttle to work again," replied Thane, that brought some smiles, "unfortunately the air supply was destroyed, so it won't be able to take us off planet."

The smiles vanished.

"God damn it, then what good is it to us?" demanded Kath,

"We can still use it," said Thane, "it can carry us around the planet, we'll be able to cover ground faster,"

"Then we can find their ship faster," finished Tosh,

"Exactly," affirmed Thane, "we have some time to rest as Zekk tries to repair the ship. Everyone pick a spot around the clearing and set up watch, we need to protect him."

There was a silent chorus of agreement as the group dispersed to take up the guard. Tiro however offered his own skills to help Zekk in his repairs of the shuttle.

"I fixed shuttles with my dad when I was a kid," the Turian had said,

After half an hour, the group was placidly sitting on guard as their two companions continued to try and secure them a ride.

"This would be so much easier with hands," muttered Zekk as he tried to rewire a panel on the control panel,

"You have to use what you get," Tiro replied as he fiddled with some pipes,

"At least I feel useful now," said Zekk,

Tiro raised an eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"Well, all of you guys are heavy hitters, guys who go through life and death every day," explained Zekk, "I'm just the Quarian who's good with stuff like this,"

"Kid," said Tiro, grabbing his companion's attention,

"yeah?"

"You know how you told us that you lived on Omega last night, next to the camp fire while we ate those monkies?"

"uh huh,"

"Listen, Omega is the deepest, blackest, scum hole I've ever had the displeasure of setting foot on. It's filled with gangster, murders, crime bosses, mercenaries, and to boot, it's bad for your health," said Tiro, "and you're a Quarian, if you take one nick to the suit, you could be as good as dead. You do risk your life every day kid, just not like us."

"I…never thought about it like that," admitted the Quarian,

"Besides," continued Tiro, returning to his wires, "I saw how you handled yourself with those Vorcha, you may not be the best, but you're no push over."

"Oh…uh…thanks," Zekk said bashfully,

"No problem, now let's get this thing fixed so we can go-"

A low growl suddenly broke through the once peaceful silence.

The two aliens in the shuttle looked at each other for a brief moment, then turned their attention to the outside.

Everyone was suddenly on alert; each of them shouldered weapons and prepared for any attack. Together they formed a circle 6 meters in diameter around the ship, a classic strategy when you didn't know where your enemy would come from.

Zekk and Tiro stuck their heads out, weapons in their hands.

Thane scanned the tree line with his sniper rifle from his perch on top of the ship's roof. He was the first to see their adversary.

What looked like some demented combination of a dog, a porcupine, and a lizard burst through the tree line with a blood thirsty snarl.

If the devil kept pets, this was what they would look like.

Thane somehow managed to ignore his surprise and squeezed off a round, the bullet caught the beast right in the middle of its head.

It tripped over its own feet, hit the floor and died.

But its death, was quickly followed by the appearance of two dozen of its brethren.

The beasts of hell charged their lines from all sides, the group opened fire.

"Don't let them break the lines!" commanded Wrex,

The Krogan had seen beasts like this used on the battlefield before. They were meant to flush out and separate.

Either the enemy would abandon cover to save itself or it would leave it's group out of the need to live. Either way, that enemy would end up dead.

Wrex was determined not to let that happen here.

He fired with his shotgun with carefully aimed shots, but the dogs were damned resilent, it took at least two shots just to put down one.

As three of beast bore down upon him he fired two quick shots, the first one exploded a dog's head, the second crippled it by taking out its front leg.

The third jumped out at him, Wrex abandoned his firearm and caught the spiny hound with his hands. It's terrible fangs lashed out at him while the bone spikes prodded him uncomfortably, with a great heave of his arms he slammed the dog onto the ground, whipped out his pistol and fired a whole clip into the side of its head.

The crippled dog was upon him now. Activating his biotics, he sent a powerful wave against the creature and sent it flying into a tree, there was a resounding crack and the dog hit the ground, dead.

Gornol let loose a stream of hellish flame across the entire section of his side of the shuttle. The fire scorched the hounds, and while they ignored the pain and ran on, the weapon was certainly taking it's toll on them.

Fire burned it's way down to their very skull, it liquidated their skin, popped membranes, scorched off limbs, all in all causing them hell.

Morroth kept the hounds away with the accurate bursts of his Vindicator rifle, noting that some of them ran circles around the perimeter, as though looking for a weak spot in their defense.

One of the hounds made it to their lines and attempted to bite of his leg. He gave it a quick kick, making it snap it's mouth shut and letting Morroth activate his omni-blade and slice it's head off.

There was a scream of pain,

A few of them noticed a hound had caught Kath by the leg was dragging him out of the circle, completely ignoring the bullets the Batarian was spraying on his attacker.

"Die you fucker!" he demanded,

Thane fired a shot, the bullet hit the beast in the brain, allowing for the Batarian to quickly crawl back to safety.

A'lez put her powerful assault rifle to good use and her biotics to even better use. A constant flow of blue energy surrounded her as she tossed dogs like ragdolls across the field, preventing them from reaching any on her side.

And her powerful weapon was synonymous with havoc as it tore up the ground and kept the beasts away.

The dogs numbers were beginning to dwindle, soon they were but a third of their original strength, victory seemed close with no casualties. But fate would not have it.

Tosh fired at one of the hounds, the bullets catching it on the leg.

So focused was he, on finishing it off with a quick burst, that he almost failed to catch the triple red dot laser aimed right to his head.

There was the unmistakable sound of discharge

Tosh threw up his shield at the last second.

An explosion of blue energy smashed into the shield, the human felt an explosion of pain as he was tossed back by the force and hit the shuttle.

When he managed to find himself again he took note of the giant smolder hole that had taken off a dinner plate sized hole from the upper part of his shield.

This alone struck Tosh with fear, this shield was designed to handle biotics, bullets, grenades, and heavy weapon fire, yet a single blast from something had melted it as though it were simple steel.

"Contact!" yelled Tiro as another blue shot of plasma flew out of the trees,

The group scattered ever so slightly as they avoided the shot, letting it explode against the ground and toss up shovel loads of dirt.

Tiro, joined by Zekk and Tosh fired into the tree at the general direction from where the shot had come from.

Suddenly another shot was fired from the right, no where near where the group had been shooting at.

By now the circle had broken and the group was scattered all over the clearing.

Thane desperately tried to find the attack in his sniper scope, no luck. He quickl abandoned his exposed perch, just in time for a shot to impact the exact place he'd been standing.

"There's more than one!" yelled Wrex,

Thane saw that the Krogan was correct, three laser dots danced around the clearing, turning off and reappearing over and over again.

Blue bolts of plasma scorched the earth as the defenders desperately attempted to evade them.

They distracted the assassin long enough to let a hound pounce upon him, knocking him to the floor. Thane did his best to keep the beast's slathering jaws away from his throat, he could feel it's hot breath as it reached out hungrily.

Lydia saw this and quickly came to his aid, kicking the dog right off and emptying a whole thermal clip into it's hide.

"No one takes away my sexy," she warned,

Thane decided to ignore the quip and jumped to his feet.

"Retreat!" he heard Wrex yell,

A Krogan only called retreat if things were really bad, Wrex only called it when he knew it was hopeless.

Wrex dashed into the foliage with the rest of the fighers quickly following after him with Tiro and Thane being the last two out.

Tiro fired blindly into the tree top as he exited the clearing right after Thane. As he ran he gave thanks to his tech armor, the thing had saved his life in that fire fight.

As the group ran, with bolts of plasma still being fired at them from behind, Zekk, being the least physically fit, tripped and landed in the ground face first.

Tiro fired back at the bolts, trying to aim at the split seconds the red lasers were visible. As he loaded another clip he noticed Zekk on the ground,

"On your feet!" he yelled as he grabbed Zekk by the collar and hauled him up.

"Thanks,"

Tiro was about to voice a reply when another blast exploded just behind him, vanquishing his tech armor in just a few seconds.

"Move!"

The two took of sprinting as more blasts of plasma exploded around them.

Tiro heard a snarl and realized that the remaining hounds were still chasing after them, he silently cursed as he saw their spiny backs through the thick foliage.

The entire group took a quick pause to perform an about face and fire at the remaining hounds, managing to put down three of the beasts.

Their stand was short lived as more bolts of plasma rained down on them. The group quickly began another retreat.

First three of them left, then another three, then another, then another.

Tiro made sure he was one of the last ones to leave, still firing his rifle.

"Let's go!" yelled Thane,

"right behind you," Tiro called back,

But it would not be so as Tiro let his guard slip for a single second, a bolt of plasma caught him in the dead center of the chest and exploded in a violent flash of lightning.

Thane averted his eyes, when the light died, Tiro's body was smoldering in the tall grass. Thane couldn't see the actual damage, and he didn't want to.

With a heavy heart, he retreated.

(#)%*#_%*)_#%(_#%()_#%)#_%#%_%(_#)#%()

As the last of the warriors retreated, the two remaining hounds abandoned the chase and turned their attention to the new corpse on the ground

Their mouths salivated as they pawed their way towards the hunk of meat.

The first one opened it's jaws to take a bite of the alien's leg, when it suddenly felt to the floor with a smoldering hole in it's head.

Tiro sprung up and fired a double tap into the second dog, it died with a wimper.

The Turian groaned and rolled his neck, he looked down at the shattered remains of his rifle. He must have been the luckiest Turian in the universe.

The shot had hit his weapon, which absorbed most of the energy, letting his shields take the rest, saving his life.

He'd been knocked out of consciousness for a couple of seconds and his armor was scorched but other than that he remained unharmed.

He was just about to go out and surprise the group with his survival, when he suddenly heard a low growl.

He immediately raised his pistol, scanning the trees.

Another growl was heard, it was like a cross between cat and some sort of lizard.

"**blue girl"**

"What the-"

"**blue girl"**

"Tosh, is that you?" called Tiro, never letting down his side arm, "Tosh?"

"**Yeah"**

"Come on out," Tiro said shakily, "please let that be you."

Tiro slowly backed up, inch by inch, his eyes darted across the top of the trees. There was a quick scuffle in the tree, Tiro quickly fired a few shots off reflex.

His scaled palms were beginning to sweat and his heart was beating at a pace he didn't even think was possible.

As he continued to back away, Tiro activated his tech armor again, a small amount of comfort as the familiar orange plates took their place on his body.

Just as soon as they'd activated, Tiro caught a shimmer of light to his right. The Turian quickly brought his pistol to bear and fired at the shimmer, he hit nothing. But a familiar red laser suddenly came to life, Tiro aimed towards it, too slow.

A bolt of plasma shot toward him, it slammed into him, dead center of the chest.

His shields screamed as the tech armor broke and whispered out of existence. He was still standing and tried to reorient himself,

There was another shimmer

Tiro tried to aim

But it was too fast,

He caught a glimpse of a pair of twin blades

His pistol was almost up

The blades came up

Tiro let out a scream of pain as the twin jagged blades cut through his armor like a hot knife through butter and slipped into his fleshy organs.

He lived just long enough to feel himself rise off the ground, carried painfully by those two razor sharp blades.

There was the sound of crackling electronics,

Tiro kept himself together just long enough to see the face of his enemy. A faceless demon, without emotion as it stared into his dying eyes.

It roared an inhuman declaration of victory

Tiro felt himself slipping away

His vision grew dark

His limbs became numb

Soon, he felt nothing


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Dig in Deep

"Are you crazy!" screamed Kath

Wrex let out a groan of annoyance, that Batarian was really starting to get on his nerves.

It had been but 5 minutes ago that they had been running for their lives from invisible killers with weapons far superior to their own. When they'd finally stopped to catch their breath, they learned from Thane that their little party was now one member smaller.

No one in the group save Morroth had known the turian Tiro very well, but still his death was hard on all of them, if only because it meant that there'd be one less on their team.

Wrex, having developed a leather hide against this sort of loss, was the quickest to recover and was the first to suggest going back.

Kath as usual, was completely against the idea, coward.

"He has a point," said Lydia, "we barely survived one round with those, whatever, why should we go back?"

"Because, they just killed one of us," replied Wrex,

"We can't go charging in guns blazing for revenge Wrex," this time A'lez, "I hate to say this but I agree with Kath, going back isn't the smartest idea."

"Let me explain my idea first," said Wrex, then added, "and I'll have you know charging in guns blazing is a favored tactic of Krogan"

"Explains why so many of you are dead," muttered Kath,

Wrex would have wringed the Batarian's neck but he chose not to, if only so that he could grab the little bitch as a meat shield the next time they were in a fire fight.

"We know these guys take trophies," started Wrex, "and they just managed to kill one of us, that means they'll grab Tiro's head as a trophy. When they do that, we can get another shot at them."

"Use the body as bait," summarized Thane,

"Exactly,"

An awkward silence descended on the group as they pondered the idea. It was a good idea and one that had some potential, on the other hand not many of them were eager to go back.

"Well," said Wrex, "you guys can all stay here and twiddle your thumbs if you like, I'm going back there, alone if need be."

With that said, the Krogan Chief pushed his way through the group and back towards the direction they'd all come from.

Thane let out a small sigh, but decided that the Krogan probably had the best idea at the moment. Grabbing his sniper rifle, he gracefully jogged after the Krogan.

Lydia, seeing her man leaving, immediately followed, who in turn was followed by Zekk.

Gornol and Morroth were next, then A'lez and Tosh, and lastly the Operative.

Kath stood alone, stubbornly refusing to move.

"Fine," he growled, "go off and get massacred, see if I care."

He waited for a moment

Then 10

Then 20

"Fuck," he muttered, then turned to follow.

(#%()#*%&#)(*%&)#(*%()#*%&)(#%&)(#&*)(#*%&)

It did not take long for the band of fighters to reach their destination, whether that was a good thing or bad thing depended on the person.

"God, we're all gonna die," whimpered Kath as he reluctantly trudged after the band,

"Will you calm down," scolded A'lez,

"You calm down!" Kath shot back, "stupid Krogan is gonna get us all killed."

A'lez rolled her eyes and kept moving,

Thane and Wrex in the front, heard the little exchange between the Asari and Batarian. Wrex barely stifled a small chuckle when he heard the Batarian's complaints.

"You find him amusing?" asked Thane,

"I find him friggin hilarious," replied Wrex, "I've seen his kind before, mercenaries who are nothing more than big bullies. They act tough back in the world, back in civilization, back where they have their teams. They carry the biggest gun they can find and wave it around, believing that it'll be enough and that they'll never have to shoot it. But out here, they're nothing but another sack of meat."

"And you find enjoyment in seeing them squirm with discomfort?"

"I find enjoyment in getting to see one of them finally find out how powerless they really are," answered Wrex, "nothing quite as satisfying as seeing some prick get his world turned upside down."

Thane decided not to pursue this line of talk any more.

Tosh, who was in the middle of the line, examined his now damaged shield.

It pained him to see the newly gained and still warm hole that their enemies weapons had punched into it. He had carried the shield for most of his Cerberus career and it was central to his survival up until now. It had protected him from bullets, biotics, and explosions, yet their weapons had caused it to melt in but one shot. That idea caused a pit to develop in his stomach, the shields given to Cerberus Guardians were meant to be stronger than the shields used by standard troops and could take massive amounts of punishment, almost a comically large amount.

Just how powerful were these ghosts?

"Why are you still carrying that thing?"

The Cerberus operative turned to see that the question had come from the young Quarian,

"I mean, there's a big hole in it," explained Zekk, "why would you keep it if it's damaged?"

"Because, it saved me," replied Tosh, "it's damaged, tis true, but I remain unharmed. There's still plenty of it around, if it helped me one, it can help me again."

"I guess that makes sense," replied Zekk, "wish I had one of those,"

"I personally prefer a really big gun," Lydia said from in the front, "scum bags can't do shit if they're in tiny little pieces."

The female merc gave an appreciative pat to the grenade launcher on her back.

"That's true too but-"

Zekk's foot suddenly caught on a high tree root, causing him to fall face forward toward the ground beneath him.

"Damn!" he managed to yell before his face met the jungle floor,

Lydia giggled, "You okay Zekky boy?"

"Fine," he said, his voice muffled by the ground,

Morroth gabbed the clumsy Qurian by the back of the shoulders and pulled him up. Zekk gave a nod of thanks before quickly checking to see if there had been any punctures in his suit or if his visor had cracked from the fall.

After finding nothing life threatening, he announced "I'm okay!"

"Good, keep it moving," Wrex ordered,

Zekk was about to start his walk again when he suddenly felt a sort of wet stickiness on the palm of his right hand.

His mind quickly jumped to the conclusion that he might have internal bleeding, but looking down his eyes immediately dismissed the idea.

For one, he did not feel any pain, which meant that he was not hurt. Two, his blood was most certainly not blue.

"Wait!" he called out,

"What is it?" Wrex growled in irritation,

"I, uh, I think you better come see this," Zekk called back, his voice just a bit shaky

Wrex let out a small groan as he made his way toward the Qurian, Thane tailing behind.

"Alright," started Wrex, his patience quickly thinning, "what's so important that we have to stop?"

Zekk held up his bloody right palm,

Wrex sighed, "just put a band aid on it kid, we've got bigger problems to worry about"

"Uh, no, it' not my blood," explained Zekk,

"Then who's blood is it?"

"That's, what I'm trying to figure out," replied Zekk as he looked around on the ground,

Thane quickly dropped to a crouch and began examining the forest floor. He took in a deep breath through his nose and smelled what could only be described as iron.

His eyes pierced through the dense grass, catching ever single little detail he could find. After a few seconds of searching, his reptilian eyes caught something.

It was small and faint, but a few blades of grass were not green, they were blue.

As he continued searching he noticed a small, nearly unnoticeable trail of the strangely colored plants.

He soon realized that the trail came from where they were going, the sight of Tiro's death. He could tell that it came from that direction because of the way the blades of grass were bent, towards them.

He followed the trail, carefully shuffling along it until he was right at the spot where Zekk had fallen.

"There," he whispered, hovering over his discovery,

"What is it?" asked Wrex,

"See for yourself," Wrex did just that, crouching down next to the drell as the rest of the group circled around them.

What they were all standing over, was a small pool of blue blood.

"That's definitely not Quarian," quipped Lydia,

"It's blue, suggests…" Morroth paused in his analysis, "suggests Turian,"

Wrex nodded, he reached down with his right hand and stuck two fingers into the small pool. He brought up the wet sticky substance to his nose and took a deep sniff, taking in its scent. Then, unexpectedly put both blood covered fingers into his mouth, after a brief moment he quickly spit the vile stuff out.

"Definitely Turian," he announced, "I'd know that taste anywhere,"

"How disturbing," commented A'lez,

"Do you think it's our Turian's?" asked Tosh,

"Who else could it be?" replied Wrex as he stood up, "they must've been dragging his body or something, the question is, where?"

Thane went back to tracing the small patches of blood, the Operative did his part by turning on thermal vision on his HUD. Footprints, especially recent ones, left small traces of heat, hopefully their captors would be no different.

Unfortunately, they were. The Operative could find no traces of heat save for the small dribbles of blood that the drell was already tracing.

Abandoning that avenue, the Operative crouched down a few feet from the Drell. He too scanned the earth, he was quickly rewarded for his efforts.

"Over here," he called quietly, motioning for the group to come,

Thane was the first over and the first to see what the Operative had found.

A foot print

A really big foot print

Lydia let out a low whistle, "Now that is one big boy,"

"The depth of the print suggests a very heavy creature," observed Morroth, "possibly over 300 pounds in weight."

"Look" said Zekk, pointing ahead,

The group did look and found more foot prints leading off into the jungle bush.

Thane reached into his coat and withdrew his pistol, he quietly moved forward and motioned the others to follow.

All of them drew their weapons, trying to follow the assassin as quietly as possible.

Thane skillfully followed the trail of footsteps through the foliage, his well-trained eyes never loosing track of his quarry.

The assassin had been killing for many years, spent many years tracking some of the most dangerous criminals the galaxy had to offer, and most of those years had also given him the pain of his illness. Death had soon become something he accepted, he felt no more fear.

But tracking this strange creature through the jungle, gave him a strange sense of uneasiness. When they'd been attacked before, in the clearing with the shuttle, he hadn't been able to find their attackers at all. The fact that they were now stalking something so incredibly stealthy seemed like a bad joke, part of him felt like this was a trap, the other part told him to listen to that part.

After another couple of tense filled minutes, the Thane came to a halt.

"Why are we stopping?" asked Tosh,

"The tracks are gone," replied Thane,

"You mean you can't track them anymore?" asked Kath,

"No, they are quite literally gone," replied Thane, the group moved up to his position and found that he was in fact correct. The tracks ended right there, in front of a large root of an impossible big tree.

"It couldn't have just disappeared," said Gornol, "there must be some sort of clue,"

Thane examined the small area where the tracks had suddenly stopped, noticing that though they did not go any further, there were several pairs of the same print in the same general area, almost as if the thing had been moving about, performing some sort of action.

Then he turned his attention to the grass,

"A body lay here," he whispered, gaining the attention of all the others. Thane looked over a patch of flattened grass,

"It was tall," he continued, "as tall as Tiro. The killer loomed over the body."

His fingers touched the ground and found fresh blood soaked into the dirt, "blood flew free, lots of it."

Thane moved towards the trunk and found small drops of blood sliding down it's surface, "there must have been great amounts of movement."

"It must have ripped the head off in the spot, then taken the body," he deduced, finally he jumped up on top of the tree roots and found more drops of blood as well as a noticeable scrap mark, "he jumped up here."

Thane looked up and saw the numerous branches that hung out like pieces of a staircase leading up into the canopy.

"It took off into the trees," he said, "that way,"

"And it wants us to follow," said Gornol,

The group turned to the Krogan who had made his way up next to the drell and was now staring at the side of the tree.

They all found what he was staring at,

On the side of the trunk was an enormous splotch of blood, painted into what must have been a crude representation of an arrow, pointing in the way Thane had deduced.

"It wants us to chase him," realized Thane, "it wants us to come after it, so that it can take us down one by one."

"Tricky bastard," muttered Wrex,

"So what are we gonna do?" asked Zekk, "should we follow it?"

Wrex chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, considering the options before them. It was quite clear that whatever was out there wanted them to follow, the damn thing had even painted an arrow. The question to answer was, should they comply?

The answer,

"No," said Wrex, "if we followed, we'd be fighting on their terms, on their turf. They'd be prepared for us, it'd be like walking into a trap. If we run into whatever is out there, I intend to do it on my terms."

"What do you suggest we do then?" asked Morroth,

"Find a place to hole up," replied Wrex, "somewhere defendable, where we can set up fields of fire, maybe some traps. Then, we send out a challenge and wait for them to come."

(#(()*#%)(#&*%)(#&*%)(#*&%)#(*%&)#(*%&)(#*%&))(#*%&)

The next couple of hours were used by the group to search for defendable locations they could use to make their stand.

This being a jungle, good positions weren't easy to come by. As dense as the foliage was, there were still many ways to enter any single position.

But as luck would have it, they eventually found one.

Lydia had been the one to find it in fact,

It was in front of a tall wall of rock where a part of the land had risen up like a hill, about 10 ft tall. The path up the hill was wide but steep, which meant it would be hard for an enemy to charge them.

When Wrex had gone up to inspect the position, he was pleased to find that there were no back entrances carved through the natural stone barriers.

It was perfect, high ground, no possible flaking routes, and a clear view of the surrounding lower area.

The only problem was the couple or so tall trees that also inhabited the hill, it wouldn't be a huge problem but it could complicate things a bit, maybe limit their fields.

"Alright," he said, "get everyone over here, we've got some work to do."

The next hours were used to begin turning the zone that they were defending into a killzone. Morroth and the Operative set up proximity mines across the fields, hiding them under the cover of grass or in the shade of one of the many trees.

Thane showed everyone how to set up trip wires made out of vines, which when broken made a satisfyingly loud snapping noise that would quickly alert them.

They also created make shift nets, not to capture put to hinder certain paths through the bush.

Zekk set up monitoring devices, small spherical objects that sent out small pulses of sonar that gave direct feed to his omni tool, allowing him to see movement.

By the time the sun began setting, they'd created effectively turned this small part of the jungle into a death trap. Anything that walked into this zone wouldn't be able to get through without alerting this group of killers.

"Alright, time to set up fields of fire," announced Wrex, "Thane, I want you in the middle back, use that rifle of yours to snipe from afar."

Thane nodded,

"Lydia, you go with him we need you to have full view with your grenade launcher,"

"No prob boss," replied the human, giving a mock salute,

"Salarian, take the Batarian, the Asari, and the Cerberus guy and set up on the left side,"

Morroth nodded acknowledgement,

"You two," he said to the Operative and Gornol, "you're with me on the right side"

"What about me?" asked Zekk,

"I want you in the back near Thane," ordered Wrex, "if you see something on your little toy, I want you to tell Thane."

"Alright, I'll do my best," said Zekk as he took his position,

"Make sure you get clear targets people, when you see them, whatever they are, light them up with everything you got. Watch the trees and listen for the signals,"

"How do we even know they'll show up?" asked Kath,

Wrex grinned, "Gornol, if you would please,"

(#(*%&)(#*&%)(#*&%()#&*%)#*(%&)(*#&%)*#&%)(*#&%)(#&*)

Deep in the jungle, three figures lazily lounged about on the tops of the jungle trees. Two went through ritual checking of their gear, but one merely stared at it's newly acquired prize.

A lovely white skull of a kill gained just this early morning, the hunter traced it's claws across the top of the smooth surface. Taking time to bask in the glory of the kill it had made.

Suddenly, the silence the hunters held was broken as bright explosion suddenly went off in the air of the far distance, sending out a loud bang.

The hunters in unison growled,

But their growls soon turned into purrs of anticipation.

A challenge was it?

The prey would soon learn the error of it's ways

*(#()#%)(*#%&)(*%&)#(*&%)(#&%*)(#&*%)(#%&*

Wrex nodded with satisfaction after Gornol's flare had gone off in the sky, he then turned the assembled group,

"Now, we wait,"

(*&%^(*#&%^(*%^(*#&%^(*&#^()#&*%^)#)%))#%*))#%^)

As day turned into night, a great silence fell upon the jungle. Only the sounds of bugs and frogs were heard.

Thane watched restlessly, his eyes quickly adjusting to the lack of light. He was no stranger to waiting for a target to make itself vulnerable, but that didn't mean he like doing it.

To pass the time, he did a few meaningless checks on his rifle to make sure it was in full operating condition.

The others did similar meaningless tasks, checking equipment, tapping their foot, switching their visors from night vision to normal.

Thane turned around to Zekk, "Anything?"

Zekk shook his head in reply, "not a damn thing,"

"Maybe they didn't get the call," suggested Lydia,

"I highly doubt that, the explosion we set off was loud and large enough to be heard throughout a very wide radius," Thane experimentally turned the night vision setting of his scope on, "they'll come, but they'll wait as long as they need to in order to put us on edge."

Lydia yawned softly, "or they could just wait until we all drop dead from exhaustion,"

"That as well,"

Suddenly there was a loud wooshing noise through the trees. Everyone was suddenly alert, their hands immediately going for their weapons.

Fingers hovered over triggers as they watched their respective fields, waiting for something to set them off.

Thane watched through his scope, scanning the trees. A form passed over his sight, he quickly shifted.

When he finally caught up with what he had seen, he let out a small sigh of relief,

"False alarm," he announced, "it's just a bird,"

Everyone let out a small breath of relief,

Just a bird

Right, just a bird

The group would have continued believing it was a bird, if it didn't suddenly turn towards them and let loose a blue bolt of pure energy,

Wrex was the first to see the "bird's" sudden dive towards their left side,

"Incoming!" he yelled,

The blue bolt lanced out at Morroth's position, the left side group scattered immediately. The plasma bolt hit the ground and detonated in a brilliant explosion of white sparks.

Thane's eyes caught sight of a second "bird" it too dived down from the sky at their position. There was the same sound of discharge from earlier, followed by a blue plasma bolt that went right at Wrex's position.

"Move!" growled the Krogan,

This bolt also missed it's mark but succeeded in disorienting the defenders and distracting them from their fields.

"Shoot them down!" ordered Wrex,

7 guns were lifted towards the air as the defenders tried to bring down their aerial opponents, but the bids were swift and weaved through their shots with amazing speed.

Thane's sniper rifle cracked as he squeezed the trigger, the shot flew true and went clean through the left wing of one of the birds, sending it tumbling to the ground.

A'lez reached out with her biotics, targeting the second. With a powerful biotic pull, she jerked the bird of course, causing it to crash right into a tree and explode into a fire wreck.

The first bird, the one shot down by Thane had landed near the middle position, coincidentally near Zekk. The young Quarian picked up what was left of the bird and was surprised to find out that it wasn't a bird at all. It was in fact a robot with bird like wings.

No sooner had he made his discovery when his omni tool sent him a warning.

Zekk quickly brought up his virtual display and found that three of his radar devices had gone off.

"Contact!" he screamed,

As soon as he warned them, a blue plasma bolt shot out from the bush. It's brilliant color lighting up the jungle night as it streamed towards the right flank.

Wrex dodged behind a rock as it flew overhead and struck a tree.

"Open fire!"

The right side let out a torrent of bullets in the general direction the plasma bolt had come from.

Another bolt was let loose from the left side, striking near Kath's helmeted head.

"Holy shit, kill it!" he screamed,

The left side opened fire, tearing through the foliage with their attack.

A third bold was loosed down the middle and would have hit Lydia square in the chest if Thane hadn't pulled her down at the last second.

Gun fire echoed through the night air as the 8 defenders tore down the jungle foliage with their never ending stream of bullets.

Their attackers responded in kind by firing off plasma bolt after plasma bolt, each nearly hitting it's mark.

"Eat this!" yelled Kath as he sprayed his assault rifle wildly,

There was the distinct sound of something sharp flying through the air. A moment later something struck against his rifle, cleaving it clean through the middle and slicing him across the chest.

Kath screamed in pain as he fell to the ground,

Lydia fired off a volley of grenades, the explosions tore up dirt and plant alike, even felling one of the trees in the field below them.

There was a primal growl of rage as the tree came down, Thane saw a flicker of movement and fired his rifle at it.

A'lez paused firing to reload, when a plasma bolt suddenly struck her Revenent, causing it to blow up in her hands and send her sprawling across the floor.

She bit back a curse as she tore of her scorched breastplate and tried not to scream from the pain.

Thane continued his search with his rifle, tuning out the sounds of battle so that he could concentrate solely on finding a target.

Somehow, he found one.

He couldn't make out details, but he could definitely see a dark form taking cover behind one of the thick trees, it's head poking out slightly.

Thane knew he had found his chance, his enemy had finally slipped up.

The crosshairs of his rifle fell on the head of his target,

Thane sucked in his breath, and pulled the trigger.

The resounding crack of his rifle echoed through the air, a moment later, the form fell to the ground.

"One of them is down!" announced the drell,

There was a resounding cheer,

"The other two are pulling back!" yelled Zekk,

The entire group breathed easier,

"Alright," said Wrex, "what do you say we get a better look at our friends,"

The weary Krogan motioned for the Operative and Gornol to follow after him as he cautiously made his way down the steep slope towards the torn up field.

Morroth, who had two of his member injured busied himself with tending to Kath and A'lez. Of the two, A'lez was the one better off, her weapon had taken the brunt of the shot and her shields had absorbed the rest of it. Even so, her breastplate was now melted beyond any use and the sheer force of the plasma bolt had left her with several cracked ribs.

Kath had similarly been saved by his weapon, whatever their enemy had thrown at him it had cut clean through his rifle yet still had enough force to cut across his chest.

A blood oozed from the line slashed across his chest, it was deep too.

"God damn it!" cursed Kath as Morroth tried to properly apply medi-gel on the thrashing Batarian,

"Will you quit whining," growled Tosh as he tried to help the salarian hold down Kath,

"Calm down? I'm bleeding out here!"

"You're gonna bleed faster if you don't let us put this medi-gel on you ya"

Kath stopped his thrashing,

In the middle field, Thane stood vigilant with his rifle as his 3 companions worked their way through their own defenses and the foliage, towards the body with his guidance.

Wrex stepped over a tripwire that he was almost certain they'd need later on if they were to hold out again.

Gornol and the Operative carefully followed his lead, the Bloodpack Krogan muttered something about their enemy having to die so far away.

"Just be glad we finally got one of them," said Wrex as he moved passed a tree,

"Yeah," said Gornol, "it's just that-"

An explosion suddenly went off, a powerful blinding light enveloped all three of them. Their bodies scattered in different directions.

The tree they had just passed gave a loud groan of pain as it's trunk gave way, the giant plant fell with a thunderous slam as it smashed into the ground.

The night air was unexpectedly filled with the high pitched sound of some sort of electronic beeping,

"Count downs!" realized Zekk,

As soon as the warning was given, the count downs hit their final number and a dozen similar explosions went off, each at the base of one of the thick trees that stood in the field.

With a collective groan, the great plants who'd stood tall for decades were brought down.

"Move!" yelled Lydia as a tree came crashing down on their position,

Thane rolled to the side as a tree crushed the ground he'd been on just a moment ago.

Morroth saw another tree falling towards his own position, thinking quickly he grabbed Kath by the collar of his armor and dragged him to safety.

Wrex, who was still alive yet dazed by the explosion, was almost smashed into a bloody Krogan pancake as he somehow managed to stumble out of the way of another tall tree's descent.

The Krogan chief pushed himself up only to be confronted with a new countdown, coming from a proximity mine they had set up.

"Crap," he muttered, then quickly dove away,

The shockwave of the explosion knocked him back to the dirt but at least he was still alive.

In the distance, he heard similar explosions as the movement of the foliage set off their explosive defenses. One must've been under the tree he'd just dodged because a sudden shower of splinters caught him from the right.

"Everybody fall back!"

(#%*#&)%(*#%&)#&*(%)#*(&%)(#&*%)#*(%&)#*%&))

The Operative woke to the sound of his shields whining as they'd been effectively overloaded. As he felt the feeling in his limbs come back to him, he pushed himself up from the ground.

Fluid ran freely down his lips, his nose must've been bleeding. HUD diagnostics also showed him that his right leg had a splint and his right arm was dislocated.

The first he'd have to fix later, the second injury however,

With a grim conviction he brutally slammed himself into a tree and popped the joint back into place. A sharp lance of pain pierced every single one of his nerves but he fought through it and pulled himself together.

He noticed the tree he'd slammed himself on was huge and completely separating him form the rest of his group.

He did a quick check of his surroundings, as he scanned the area, he realized that this was incredibly close to where the drell had told them he'd shot down one of the enemy.

Not wanting to have gotten blown up for nothing, the Operative quietly pressed on, even as he heard his Krogan comrade call for a retreat.

As he wormed his way through the foliage, he came upon a dark form laying on the ground.

He tried to turn on his HUD's night vision was rewarded only with a storm of black and white that only served to temporarily disorient him.

He pressed on without his technology aided vision, carefully shuffling to the body for fear it might suddenly spring back to life.

After what seemed like an impossibly long amount of time simply walking over to the thing, the Operative finally reached his target.

The thing was on its stomach, so he couldn't get a good look at its front. With his rifle trained on the corpse, the Operative grabbed what he assumed was its shoulder and flipped it over on its back.

The Operative behind his visor, squinted his eyes.

He crouched down and pressed his face closer to the corpse,

No, this wasn't right!

The corpse he'd found was alien alright, but it wasn't the right alien! Moreover, he was quite sure he'd known this alien! Despite the pitch darkness, the body in front of him was undeniably Turian, his eyes traveled to the head where a rock had been crudely mounted as a makeshift head.

The Operative felt his adrenaline spike, he quickly shuffled away from the corpse, realizing that they'd been baited form the beginning.

There was a shuffle to his side, he quickly shifted his sights in time to see a shimmer in the darkness.

Without hesitation he jammed his finger down on the trigger of his rifle, the Mattock spat heavy rounds that shredded the foliage into green confetti.

A low primal growl burst from the night,

Another shuffle to his left, he swung and fired at the first sight of movement.

Another to his right, he fired, eliciting another growl.

Behind him, the Operative reloaded and kept up the fire hoping just to keep the thing at bay.

His tactic so far had been working, whatever the thing was it seemed to favor close quarters combat, which meant he was at an advantage. If he could keep it up for just a bit longer he could-

Suddenly the Operative was jerked away, he Mattock fell from his hands as he was slammed into a tree. But he did not fall from the tree, instead he hung a good foot off the ground stuck to it.

The Operative coughed hoarsely, blood splattered the inside of his visor.

His eyes looked down, just as a long metal spear appeared out of thin air, stuck straight through his abdomen and into the tree behind him.

The Operative let out a cry of pain, his life blood dripping down the metal pole.

Then there was the sound of a heavy thud, the Operative had just enough strength to look up and see his attacker reveal himself.

The human's vision began to blur, but he could still make out the emotionless mask, the dreadlocks hanging from the creature's head, the 7 feet of pure muscle.

The creature reached out with its large hand and roughly grabbed him by the neck. The Operative gagged, both on his own blood and the sudden lack of air.

He heard the sudden unsheathing of a blade, the human clung to life just long enough to see his the creature raise it's arm, wielding a pair of jagged wrist blades.

With a victorious growl, the arm shot forward

The Operative, was no more.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Duel

"Status?" ordered Wrex as he and his fellow Krogan: Gornol, returned to their now devastated base.

"Bad," replied Thane, "two of our number are have sustained injuries and lost their primary weapons. The explosions set off most of our own proximity mines and destroyed the traps we had set up."

"Damn!" cursed Wrex,

This whole idea, which everyone had believed would be their salvation, had been turned into a complete disaster in a simple span of 10 minutes. It was almost funny how quickly their enemy had turned reversed the tables on them. The Krogan in Wrex found great amounts of respect for these clever adversaries, luring them in like that was pure genius, even if it had cost them one of their own.

That was something encouraging though, that they'd managed to take down on of the enemy. It was at this moment that Wrex noticed something was amiss.

"Hey, where's that human in the black armor?"

"I thought he was with you," replied Thane,

"The explosions scattered us and we got separated by a tree," explained Wrex, "he's not back yet?"

Thane shook his head: No

Wrex let out a heavy sigh, he turned back to the clearing and shouted, "Hey, human! If you're still alive out there, yell back!"

5 seconds passed with no response, then 10 seconds passed and still nothing.

Wrex scowled, he turned to Gornol, "Let's go and find him, hopefully he just hit his head and is knocked out on the ground."

Gornol nodded, Wrex then turned to Zekk, "you two come with us."

"Uh, yes sir!" Zekk quickly jogged after the two Krogan,

"Coming," said Lydia as she too followed,

"I'll cover you from here," Thane called as they walked back out into the clearing. Wrex gave a quick nod to the drell and continued leading the search party.

"Where are they going?"

Thane turned around to see Tosh, wiping his hand with a thoroughly blood soaked cloth.

"To find the human soldier," answered Thane as he continued to watch the party of three make their way through the foliage. "He does not respond to our calls, we believe he may be unconscious."

"We, or the Krogan?" asked Tosh,

Thane did not respond. It was truth that he did not find the likely hood of the human soldier simply being knocked out a very likely cause of his unexplained silence. No, something told Thane that the soldier was most likely in a state none of them wanted him to be in.

"How are our injured?" asked the drell in a blatant attempt to change the subject,

"Better now," Tosh replied, playing along. "The Asari has a cracked rib or two, nothing too bad. Her armor and weapon took most of the blast, but her chest plate is useless now."

Thane nodded, the loss of a weapon was great considering their current situation but at least they hadn't lost another of their number and at least being an Asari, she still had biotics.

"And the Batarian?"

"Whining like a little girl, but he should be fine too. His weapon is also gone, and he's got a fairly nasty cut across his chest but he'll live,"

"Good," said Thane, "let us hope that our missing companion will be as lucky."

( #(%& #(*%&)( #*&%)( #*&%)#&)&)%) #&(%()

"Alright, this is around the spot that he was at when the trees started falling," said Wrex, "spread out, go two in a group."

"Fine by me," said Lydia as she started searching, "come on Zekky boy,"

Wrex and Gornol went in another direction to search.

"Do you, think that he's…" Zekk trailed off,

"Still alive?" finished Lydia, Zekk nodded grimly. "I hope so, he didn't talk a lot but he was handy in a fight."

"Yeah, me too," Zekk said quietly,

Lydia frowned. This Quarian kid was nice, but he was way too quiet. It probably didn't help that he was surrounded by some of the most dangerous people in the galaxy and being hunted by an unknown group of enemies, but still.

"You go family Zekk?" asked Lydia, trying to lighten the mood,

"Yeah, my mom and dad back with the Migrant fleet," Zekk replied a bit nostalgically, "but, I haven't seen them in over a year. I sure miss them."

"Why can't you go back?"

"I haven't completed my pilgrimage yet, I can't return to the fleet until I've got something that could benefit the fleet as a whole, help us survive better."

"Like what?"

"Food, fuel, technology, maybe even a new starship," explained Zekk, "anything that could help us out."

"And I thought soccer dads were bad," murmured Lydia,

"What's soccer?"

"A sport," answered Lydia, "you got a girlfriend Zekk?"

"Uh, well, you see, it's sort of complicated," stuttered Zekk, completely taken aback by the question. Lydia just gave him a hard stare, and he replied, "no"

"That's what I thought," said Lydia, "but something tells me you've got the hots for someone in your life."

"How…did you-"

"A woman can always tell," answered Lydia, "so, who is she?"

"Well, I met her on Omega," he began, "and I just saw her a lot at this bar and, it just sort of happened."

"Oh, Omega huh? The ladies there are particularly spicy," Lydia said knowingly, "any girl you get from there is bound to give you a wild night in bed, trust me, been there myself."

"You, had sex with a girl from Omega?" asked a bewildered Zekk,

"Not **a** girl, girl**s**" corrected Lydia, "yup, that was one wild night."

"Oh…I see," if he weren't wearing a mask, Lydia would have seen that Zekk had blushed as red as a tomato.

"So what's her name?"

"Uh, Kat," he said bashfully,

"Asari? Turian? Krogan?"

"Human actually,"

"Ah, good choice, and what's she-" Lydia suddenly stopped, her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.

"What is it?" asked Zekk,

"Blood, I smell blood," she whispered pulling out her weapon, Zekk similarly readied his own.

The two of them carefully began to edge forward with Lydia taking point. Worming their way through the dense foliage, they soon came to a spot where the smell of blood was particularly overpowering. What they found was not a pleasing thing to see.

Wrex and Gornol, who'd been searching for quite some time with nothing to show for it, were glad when Lydia called them over the COM.

"Boss man, come over here, you might want to see this,"

"Did you find him?" he asked,

There was a brief lapse of silence before she said, "most of him,"

The two Krogan quickly broke into a jog, soon arriving to join up with their two companions.

"Where is he?" he asked when he saw Lydia, the mercenary pointed over to the fallen tree. Wrex had to squint a bit before his eyes could adjust to the darkness. But he eventually found what Lydia had been pointing at.

"Damn," he muttered,

It was the body of the operative, specifically, just the body. The man's entire head had been removed from his shoulders. Blood had been splattered on the tree like paint and a large pool of the red liquid was now developing on the ground where the Operative's body sat slumped against the fallen tree.

Wrex moved in to get a better look at the body. After a quick examination, he found that the Operative had three wounds. One large hole that went straight through his stomach, a quick check of the tree revealed there to be a similar hole puncturing through the bark. Wrex deduced that something had been shoved through the human and had pinned him to the tree.

The next two wounds were exactly identical to each other. Both were puncture wounds that were parallel to each other, both had hit directly where the human's heart would be found.

'Clean and quick' Wrex mused,

He carefully turned the Operative's body around and made a gruesome discovery. The armor meant to protect the Opeative's backside had been split open as had the man's back itself. A long bloody line had been drawn up and out, the Operative's spine was missing too.

Not only had the hunter killed one of theirs, they'd taken their trophy as well.

"What about the one we got?" he asked turning back to Lydia, "the one Thane shot?"

"You're never gonna believe this," this time Zekk spoke up, "looks like they used a decoy, a corpse to make it look like we got one of them."

"Damn!" Wrex cursed,

"It gets worse, they used Tiro's body,"

"The Turian?"

Zekk nodded,

"Clever bastards," he spat, "let's get back before they show up again."

Back at the camp, Wrex explained the situation to the rest of the party.

"So basically what you're saying is, them 2 and us 0," surmised A'lez grimly,

"Basically," Wrex replied

The only bright side to their current discussion was that Kath was unconscious, thus they were spared his usual whining and negativity.

"Goddess," she murmured,

Thane sat quietly on a nearby rock, rifle leaning against him. Despite reassurances from the others, the assassin still blamed himself for the death of the human. He had been the one to call the kill, thus sending the search party, and in turn setting off the traps the enemy had left. It was because of him that the Operative's head was now separated from his body so that it may sit in some trophy room.

Wrex sighed heavily, he never took loss well. He was a proud Krogan, for his kind a fight had to result in either victory or death. Losing simply wasn't in their vocabulary. But these adversaries, had roped him along like some freshly blooded youngling who'd just passed his trials and was out in the world to shoot everything he could. They'd made a fool of his capabilities and a mockery of his plan. Anger swelled in his heart, but years of experience tempered it. He'd get nowhere just charging in guns blazing, as fun as that'd be.

"Alright," the Krogan said, "no use wallowing around in distress, let's make an equipment check, see what we've got left."

The gathered group gave a nod, anything to get their minds off their most recent defeat.

"I've still got my shotgun, still got a couple clips left for it," started Wrex,

"I still have my rifle as well as ammo for it" Thane said, "I also still have my two Phalanx side arms."

"My flamethrower is still useable," said Gornol, "and I've got what feels like, half a tank on my back."

"I still have my Vindicator rifle with a couple clips left," said Morroth, "and my side arm."

A'lez sighed, "well, my Revenant is a pile of melted slag, but I've still got my Carnifex."

"Um, I have my Tempest submachine gun," Zekk said nervously, "I still have three clips for it, but I've also still got a side arm with only one clip."

"I've got my shield," Tosh gave his shield a small knock, "and a few more clips for my Hornet."

"Kath's rifle is in pieces," added A'lez, "but I think he still has a pistol too."

"Here," Wrex tossed A'lez the recently deceased Operative's Mattock rifle, "give that to the Batarian when he wakes us. He probably needs it more than you do."

"No kidding, probably never even fired that pistol of his either," the asari remarked dryly,

After a long moment of silence, A'lez was the one to finally ask, "so, what's the plan?"

Wrex sighed, "I'm not sure, but one thing's for sure, we can't stay here anymore. It's clear that digging in somewhere and waiting for them to come to us isn't the right strategy to take."

"So we go on the offensive?" offered Morroth, "take the fight to them?"

"Maybe," murmured Wrex, "for now, I think we could all do with some rest."

There was a resounding agreement from the entire group.

"I'll take watch," offered Morroth, "salarians need less sleep anyway."

Wrex nodded, "alright, but when you need rest, shake someone awake and get some sleep yourself. You're no used to us if you're too tired to lift your gun."

Morroth gave a return nod.

The rest of them walked to the cliff face they had braced themselves against and found themselves a place to rest.

Thane, as usual, slept sitting up against the wall of rock. Lydia predictably slept next to him, despite the obvious discomfort it gave him.

Before long, the group was deep in sleep.

(#(*%& )(#%*&#)( %&#()&%*()%#*& ()%*&#()*%&#) *%&())

Tosh woke in the middle of the night feeling the strong need to empty his bowls. With a grumble and a noisy rise from the ground, he lumbered over sleepily to the far side of their camp to relieve himself.

As he began to unzip his pants, he noticed that their Salarian watchmen was nowhere to be found. Tosh's hand immediately went for his weapon, he found comfort in feeling his Hornet's grip in his palm.

"Morroth?" he whispered, eyes scanning for the Salarian,

"Morroth?" he called out a bit louder, his Hornet slid out of its holster,

"Morroth?"

"Yes?"

Tosh nearly jumped out of his boots when the Salarian suddenly appeared out of thin air just a few feet from him, causally sitting on a rock.

"Loa!" he gasped, "don't do that!"

"Apologies," said the Salarian, "was simply keeping watch while stealth cloaked, had to keep perfectly still, very easy to do when contemplating such a wonderfully puzzling situation."

"Whatever," muttered Tosh, he was just glad that he hadn't accidently done the business he'd intended to do while his pants were still on. "Did you say wonderfully puzzling?"

"Yes, found it very interesting, that is what happened today," replied Morroth, "found it strange that only one of us died, enemy could have killed all three, but decided to take only one, puzzling indeed."

"I suppose,"

"After all, more alive means conflict when go on for longer time, curious. Perhaps it is what enemy wants, study us? Love of conflict? Possible, thrill of hunt, love of adrenaline that circulates through the body when stalking prey."

Tosh left the Salarian to his invisible ramblings so that he might go relieve himself. Still, the last few sentences that had left Morroth's mouth seemed rather disturbing. Fighting an enemy that with better weapons and better tactics was one thing, but fighting an enemy who loved to kill, was another thing entirely.

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The next morning was a silent one. The group ate what few rations they had left, meaning at some point they would either have to go on without food or find some source to gain more. Kath took the news that the Operative died surprisingly well, his only response to it was, "figures"

"So what's the plan?" asked Kath, obviously exhausted despite having slept the most.

His question was met with resounding silence. After a few more minutes, Wrex finally said, "you guys remember that arrow?"

Ten minutes later and they found themselves back at the tall tree with the arrow painted in blue blood still on its trunk.

"What are you thinking?" asked A'lez when they arrived,

"I'm thinking that it's time we stopped running," growled Wrex, "we've already lost two men because we ran away from them. They've been nipping at our heels this whole time, making us run so they can pounce on our backs, well I'm tired of it."

Wrex turned to the group, "If we run, we all die."

"What's the alternative?" asked Thane,

"Arrow points that way," said Wrex, turning towards the jungle "we're going in after them."

(# *(%& #()% #()*&)(#*%&)(*#&%) #(%&*) #(*%&)# &*%) #(%&*) #&)

"Go in after them" repeated Kath as they walked through the jungle "great fucking idea."

No one even bothered to respond to the Batarian, by now they were simply too used to his complaining to even care about it.

Wrex, who was in the front, while Kath was in the back, had half a mind to stop their line, go back there and tie the Batarian to a tree. But the other half was simply too tired to try to agree. Hopefully he'd feel better after he shoved the barrel of his shotgun down the throat of whatever was hunting them.

But to be honest, he wasn't even sure he could muster the energy to do even that. He was exhausted, they were all exhausted, no denying that. Everyone walked with a certain drag in their feet and a slouch in their shoulders.

Fighting was tiring sure, but what many people didn't realize is that in some ways, marching was worse. The monotony of simply walking across rough land in a single direction for the entire day caused most people to enter a state where they no longer had to force themselves to keep moving anymore. Their legs just kept moving on their own as though they'd been set onto some sort of autopilot.

So set in the state was Wrex, that he almost went tumbling to his death.

Just as he walked through a pair of tall bushes, his foot found nothing to place itself on. He quickly threw his weight on to his back foot, halting the march of the others.

"Whoa!" he cried, Zekk, who had been behind him, quickly grabbed him by the hump and pulled him to safety.

Stumbling back on to sweet solid ground, Wrex let out a small sigh of relief, "thanks,"

"Don't mention it," replied Zekk, a bit winded,

Wrex moved forward carefully this time and found that the two bushed opened into a sheer drop right into a raging river quite a ways below them.

The rest of the group moved up to see what the Krogan was staring at.

Lydia let out a low whistle, "that's a long fall."

"About 148 feet," commented Morroth,

The group turned to the Salarian and gave him similarly incredulous stares.

"A simple mathematical calculation," he explained innocently, the group accepted the response, knowing that none of them would ever understand how his "simple math calculation" anyway.

"What now?" asked Tosh,

"We follow the river," said Wrex, "hopefully, we'll find a place shallow enough to cross, or some sort of log to walk across."

With that said, the group began to walk alongside the dangerously deep ravine with an incredibly powerful river running below.

"You know, if we ever get off this planet," said Kath as they walked, "first thing I'm gonna do, is hit the bar and get as drunk as possible."

"I second that," called Lydia from in front of him,

"Then, I'm gonna find me some nice bitches, maybe some Asari, and I'm gonna fuck them all night long," continued the Batarian,

"Amen to that as well," said Lydia, "what about you Zekk? If we do get off this rock, what are you gonna do the first thing you get back?"

"Probably head to the nearest hospital so I can get checked for viruses," he replied dryly, "I've probably contacted a dozen bugs already."

"Nah, I tell you what you should do," interrupted Lydia, "you should go to that girl of yours and give her a big hug."

"What?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what you should do," said Lydia "the girls love it when their the first thing you take care of after a long trip away. I should know, I once had this girlfriend, nice blonde, I went away on this mission for the Eclipse that took 2 weeks, I came back and told her the first thing I did when I came back was come see her. Then she took me into her place and we-"

"Alright, alright, I get it," Zekk interrupted,

"Yup, just keep that advice and you'll be just fine. That girl of yours will take you home, rip your clothes off and ride you like a-"

"I said I get it," Zekk cut in hastily, "are all women in the Eclipse like you?"

"Nah, just me," Lydia replied with a proud smile,

"Hey!" Wrex called from the front, stopping the line and turning to face them. "Keep it down back there! You'll give away our position to every single thing for half a click around!"

"Sorry Mom," grumbled Lydia,

"Just stay quiet," Wrex growled,

The Krogan was just about to turn back around and continue the march, when he caught a small glimmer in the corner of his eye. He turned his head and found a trio of red lasers directly atop his crest.

"Get down!"

The line of aliens dropped hit the dirt just as a volley of plasma bolts was unleashed. Wrex felt the heat of one such bolt miss him by mere centimeters.

Tosh was the first to get back on his feet and return fire.

A primal inhuman growl echoed out from the canopy, more plasma bolts were fired at the group. Their invisible attackers jumping from tree to tree, circling their prey like a swarm of vultures.

"Run!" yelled Wrex,

The group was all too happy to comply as they quickly ceased their return fire and sprinted after their leader. Plasma bolts chased after them as thy beat a hasty retreat along the ravine, explosions threw up dirt and bits of bark into the air. Trees shattered as plasma bolts meant for them missed and struck the foliage, fires were ignited by the sheer amount of fire going off in the jungle.

Wrex led the group of soldiers blindly through the dense jungle. He came to a sudden halt when the path that they'd been traveling along suddenly ended.

"Shit!" he cursed,

There was no where left to run. Going back meant fighting against the enemy in an undefendable location with unfamiliar terrain and lower ground. The rest of the group soon caught up to him and found themselves in equal amounts of despair.

"Son of a bitch" yelled Kath, "now what?"

A plasma bolt struck nearby. Tosh, Lydia and Thane quickly performed an about face and opened fire on anything that looked like it was even remotely moving.

Gornol moved next to them and set the jungle foliage ablaze with his flamethrower, creating a barrier of pure fire and smoke that obscured the entire group.

"That'll hold them off for a bit" he yelled,

Wrex looked down and stared at the water below. It was a risk, the river's current was strong and there were plenty of rocks, but it might just save their lives.

"We're going to have to jump," he announced,

"What? Are you crazy?" screamed Kath,

"It's not that far down, you'll live," Wrex yelled over the sound of plasma bolts,

"No way! I am not jumping!"

"Wasn't too fond of you anyway," replied Wrex, then without another word, leapt off the cliff and into the rapids below. The group rushed to the edge and waited for the Krogan to pop back to the surface, a few seconds passed without a single trace, the old Krogan seemed to have finally bitten the dust.

But that idea was dispelled when the sight of his red crest burst out from the river, coughing and cursing as the water dragged him off to some unknown destination.

A plasma bolt struck the ground next to them. The group decided that whatever that unknown destination happened be, it was preferable to staying here.

"Well, nothing for it," said A'lez, the asari backed up a few steps then took a running jump off the cliff, Thane followed closely behind after putting on his mask.

"Oh boy," mumbled Zekk,

"Come on! Nothing to it!" assured Lydia who jumped without hesitation,

After seeing her jump, Zekk took a deep breath and leapt off himself, quickly followed by Morroth and Tosh.

The only two left were Gornol who continued fueling the fire barrier with his flamethrower and Kath who was still hesitant about the idea.

"Okay," he whispered to himself, "you can do this, you can do this."

"Hurry up!" roared Gornol who now stood next to him,

"Shut up!" screamed Kath, "I'll do it when I'm good and rea-"

The Batarian suddenly seized up. The stench of blood hit Gornol's nostrils, he turned his eyes downwards and saw a sharp metal spear sticking through the Kath's chest.

The Batarian made whimpered before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he finally fell off the cliff, body as limp as a doll.

Gornol felt a pang of regret but brushed it aside for another time before jumping off himself.

(#*&) (#*%&) #(*&%() #*%& #()*&% #()*&%) #(%&)( #*%&) #()

Thane was thankful for the mask he wore over his mouth as he thrashed in the incredibly strong grasp of the river. More than once he found himself under the water, pulled down by a thousand powerful hands. Each time he barely managed to pull himself back up before his mask's oxygen supply ran out.

It was humbling really, he was so used to being in control when it came to warfare. But to be forced into a corner by the enemy, the pushed to performing an act as reckless as jumping off a cliff into a raging river was indeed not something he'd plan to do. Now he was in the hands of this planet's power, the river tossed him around like a child, showing him that no matter how skilled he might be, he was powerless before nature.

"Log…ahead!" he heard someone yell from down the river.

Thane stuck his head above the water and spotted what the voice had been talking about. A fallen tree had stuck itself out on to the rapids, that might be their one chance to escape the power of the river.

Thane tried to swim his way towards the left side of the river where the tree was located, but the water continued to pull him back. His strokes were nothing against the current but somehow he managed to make his way little by little to the left.

When the tree finally came up, the river had its revenge on his success by slamming him against it with enough force to knock the wind out of him and possibly crack a few ribs.

"Thane! You okay?"

The drell turned his weary head to see Wrex clinging on the same tree as him, along with A'lez.

"I'm fine," he called "where are the others?"

That question was answered when they saw Lydia, followed closely by Zekk coming down the river.

"Hey!" called A'lez, "over here!"

The Asari must have caught their attention, because the pair began to swim their way over towards them. Unfortunately, the rapids seemed to be too much for them, for Thane saw that at the rate they were going, the river would pull them past the tree before they could get into a proper position.

Calling upon his biotics, he grabbed both Lydia and Zekk. A blue aura surrounded the two, a moment later they were dragged through the water, towards the tree.

Thane's hand shot out and quickly caught Lydia by the hand, who in turn caught Zekk by his hand. A'lez swam her way over and used her superior biotics to help drag the two to the safety of the log.

"Whew, thanks sexy,"

Thane nodded to Lydia in weary response.

"Let's get out of this damn water," called Wrex,

The others happily agreed. They used the log as a hand rail to drag themselves to dry land where most of them immediately collapsed.

They were soaking wet, tired, beaten, but alive.

"Oh, sweet ground" A'lez said dramatically, "I'll never leave you again."

It wasn't long before Morroth and Tosh came down the river as well, Thane and A'lez quickly used their combined biotics to lift the two out of the water and onto land.

"Suggest, never doing that again," quipped Morroth between huffs,

"I am in agreement," commented Tosh as he lay sprawled out on the ground, equally out of breath.

"Hey" Zekk suddenly spoke, "where's Gornol and Kath?"

( #( #)%&() *#&%)(#*&%) #(&*%() #*&%)( #&*%)(&*% #)(#%*&) #(%&*) #%&)( #%*&)

Gornol had also washed up on dry land, though he did not know, his docking point was much further up the river. The Krogan walked up onto dry land, his weapon missing.

He'd been forced to dump the flamethrower while he was in the river, the weight of it had continuously dragged him beneath the water and threatened to drown him.

As he walked up onto the shore, lungs aching for breath, his nose caught the familiar scent of blood.

His eyes wandered up the shore where he saw a familiar corpse, Kath. Gornol sighed heavily.

He began to rise from the ground, when he noticed just how far Kath's body was from the water. It was a good 5 maybe 6 feet from the edge of the river, no current, no matter how strong could have thrown the batarian's body that far up shore.

Another peculiar and frightening thing was that the spear that had been firmly lodged in Kath's chest, was now missing.

The Krogan felt a cold finger touch his spine, a chill running up his back. A purr broke the uneasy silence, like that of a predator appreciating it's prey before the kill.

Though Gornol was no stranger to fighting unarmed, he wasn't sure if that would help him against such opponents. His hands balled into fists, ready to strike if need be. His reptilian eyes darted around the dense vegetation, and his nose searched for the scent of anything unfamiliar.

For what seemed to be the longest moment of his life, everything was perfectly still. Absolutely nothing moved.

Gornol began to ease himself, perhaps there really was no danger around after all.

Then he heard a low electronic humming, he turned his head towards the source of the noise and was confronted with a familiar 3 dot laser that was placed upon his forehead.

Gornol growled angrily.

The enemy targeting him, suddenly materialized out of thin air and Gornol got his first good look at their hunters.

It was a tall, humanoid looking alien. He guessed to be roughly 7 and a half feet tall, judging from it's physic, most of that height was built out of pure muscle. It's chest was mostly bear, but it's shoulders were covered with what seemed to be metal pauldrons made out of overlapping sheets. It's face was covered in an expressionless mask, Gornol noticed that it was from the mask that the 3 dot targeting laser originated. Upon it's left shoulder was some sort of small mounted cannon, which Gornol guessed to be the source of all those plasma bolts that had been shot at his group. The hunter's hair, it that's what it was, was form of dreadlocks that reached down to the hunter's shoulders.

In addition, the hunter's pauldrons, vambraces, and kneeguards were all covered with small yet sharp looking spikes, giving it an incredibly menacing look.

But what really caught Gornol's attention, was the spear that the hunter held in it's hand and the unmistakable stain of blood upon its length.

The Krogan ran through his options, he could run but probably wouldn't get far without receiving a bolt into his back, or he could charge and try to knock the thing out before it could fry him.

He decided to go for the latter. He prepared to charge, but stopped himself when he noticed another 3 dot laser upon his plate. He cautiously turned himself to see another hunter reveal itself from the shadows.

This one was much like it's brother, equally tall and well-muscled with similar armor and a similar cannon on it's left shoulder. What made this hunter different from it's brother, was that instead of rows of spikes decorating it's armor, this hunter had opted to decorate itself with bones, lots of them.

An unmistakably human skull placed on a small pike stuck out from the hunter's right shoulder. Dangling from it's neck was a necklace of various other small bones belonging to smaller animals. From it's waist there were two skulls which he recognized to be Vorcha. Even the hunter's weapon, a tomahawk, was made out of bone.

The handle looked like a spinal cord, the axe head resembled a sharpened jaw bone, and the decorations hanging from strings were quite clearly finger bones.

But most disturbingly, the hunter had replaced it's right pauldron with what he also recognized to be a Krogan's crest plate.

A small vein of anger opened in his heart when he saw one of his own kind's crest plate displayed so blatantly as a trophy.

His thoughts were interrupted by yet a third set of 3 dot lasers, this one directly between his eyes.

A new hunter walked out from the jungle, arrogance and pride evident as it strode out to stand in front of the Krogan prey.

This one stuck out the most out of the three.

It was noticeably taller and larger than it's two brothers, more noticeably, in addition to the armor it wore that was similar to it's brothers, this hunter's mask carried sets of teeth on both sides. They must have been ripped off from some ferocious predator, for all of the teeth lined up on the mask looked to be razor sharp.

Even more noticeable was that unlike the other two, whose skin was of a tannish color, this hunter's skin was incredibly pale, almost white. Gornol assumed that it was either a different race, or an albino.

So there he stood, surrounded by three dangerous enemies who could kill him in a blink of an eye. Yet they held back and let him analyze them at his leisure, why?

Gornol was pulled out of his mind when the spiked hunter, dropped down from it's perch atop a log and walked over to Kath's body.

The Blood pack mercenary watched as the hunter knelt down to Batarian, pulled out a knife from it's kneeguards and began expertly sawing off the alien's head. The knife cut through Kath's flesh as easily as a blade would go through air.

Before long, the hunter had it's prize and walked back to it's perched, then replaced it's targeting laser upon his head.

The bone hunter, suddenly stepped towards Gornol, a growl erupting from it's throat. The albino predator however, suddenly stepped forth as well and shoved the bone hunter back.

The bone hunter growled furiously, but the albino growled right back challengingly. The bone hunter begrudgingly stepped back. The albino hunter turned to the spiked hunter, a moment later the 3 dots were removed from Gornol's head.

The large albino hunter, pointed a single taloned finger at Gornol and uttered a loud roar. As a Krogan, Gornol understood what the hunter wanted, a duel, a fight between only the two of them.

Gornol smashed his two fists together challengingly, "you want some of this? Come and get it!"

The albino hunter roared back.

As if let off some invisible leash the two combatants suddenly charged each other, they collided in a frightening battle of strength as they locked against each other in a desperate grapple.

Krogan's were famed across the galaxy for their strength and durability. Anyone stupid enough to engage a Krogan in hand to hand combat was had to either be mentally retarded or too brave for their own good. Either one usually walked out of the fight dead.

But this hunter, matched Gornol's strength pound for pound. Neither of them could push the other back a single inch. But then, the Krogan began to feel the hunter gain the advantage, he glanced down to confirm that he was in fact, beginning to slide back.

Thinking quickly, Gornol drew back his head and attempted to land a famed Krogan head butt on his adversary. But the hunter saw this and before the blow could be delivered twisted Gornol off balance and sent him tumbling into the mud.

Gornol expected the hunter to kick him while he was down, but was surprised when no pain came. Instead, the hunter took a few steps back and allowed him to rise back to his feet.

The Krogan spat out some mud, now he was pissed.

Gornol charged the hunter with full speed, hoping to crush his opponent with sheer strength. But the hunter was prepared, as the Krogan's head began to reach him, he side stepped and gave the Krogan a strong push from behind, smashing the bulk alien into a sturdy tree.

Slightly daze by his impact, Gornol was helpless as the hunter spun him around and began to rain a series of heavy blows across his reptilian face.

Despite the constant beating, the Krogan managed to gain his wits and shove the hunter away for some breathing room.

The albino charged him again, but this time Gornol pressed his shoulder in and gave the hunter a powerful back hand fueled by a charge. The hunter was knocked right onto his back by the blow but quickly recovered and stood back up.

The hunter lashed out with a right hook, and caught Gornol across the chin, causing him to stumble. But the Krogan shrugged it off and charged the hunter. This time, he caught his opponent in his charge and managed to slam him into a tree.

Gornol backed up for to deliver a headbutt, but the hunter pulled up his leg and used his foot to kick the mercenary away before the attack could be carried out. This time it was the hunter's turn to charge, Gornol was caught off guard and was similarly slammed into a tree.

The hunter grabbed the Krogan by the neck to hold him in place, then began viciously pound it's right fist into Gornol's face. It then stopped and unexpectedly hooked it's right arm under the Krogan's leg.

Much to mercenary Krogan's suprise, the hunter, in a display of incredible strength lifted the Krogan onto it's shoulders. Helpless in the air, Gornol could not stop the hunter from tossing him down, face first onto the ground.

Thankfully his neck didn't break, but it still hurt like hell.

The hunter rolled Gornol over and straddled the Krogan, it then began to mercilessly hammer down upon the Krogan's already battered face, alternating between left and right as it continued to beat the Krogan within an inch of its life.

By the time the hunter had stopped, all fight had left Gornol's beaten body.

The Krogan had just enough left to feel the hunter grab him by the neck and see two vicious looking blades shoot out from it's right vambrace.

The hunter drew it's hand back, then shot it forth.

Blackness devoured Gornol as he left to join his ancestors.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Glimmer of Hope

"Hey! Where's Gornol and Kath?"

All eyes turned to the young Quarian, whom they all realized brought up a very good point. Wrex, who had been lying down on his back in the muddy ground of the bank, wearily pushed himself up and approached the water.

His red reptilian eyes scanned the rapids, looking for any sign of their two missing comrades.

"I don't suppose any of you jumped after them?" he asked the whole group,

He was answered with a resounding silence, which he assumed meant no.

He let out a large sigh of frustration. As best he could theorize, the disappearance of those two could mean a number of things.

One, the river had swept them along a different channel, meaning that they were now separated from the main party.

Two, they were dead, either they drowned, smacked their heads against a rock along the river, or those things, those hunters got to them.

Either way, they were now down two men. The Krogan Clan Leader let out a low growl, and then stomped back up the bank, clearly angered. He suddenly struck out with his right hand and hit a tree, causing a fair amount of bark and leaves to come off the poor plant.

"Damn it!" he cursed, "we're dropping like pyjaks!"

"Hey, just cause their not here doesn't mean their dead," tried Zekk who bravely, or stupidly, put a shoulder on the much larger Krogan's shoulder, "Maybe they just washed up a bit from here, why don't we give them 5 minutes? See if they show up? We could all use the rest,"

Wrex spun around and took a brief assessment of the group. Most of them were panting heavily and were tired out from being tossed around in the river. Then there was the mental stress of losing so many people in such a short amount of time, while inflicting no casualties back upon the enemy that was probably affecting them all.

The Battle Master gave a silent nod of his head then went to sit down on a rock and rest his weary body. This trip had been one failure after another; it seemed that no matter what tactic they chose, the hunters knew the best way to counter.

It suddenly occurred to Wrex that if this was happening to them, right now, there was a possibility that it could have happened before.

"Hey, Salarian," he called causing Morroth, who had been leaning against a tree, to turn to him, "do you think it's possible that these, hunters, have brought people here before and have done what they're doing to us right now to those other people?"

Morroth mulled the question over for a few minutes, taking time to consider all of the factors and include the experiences he'd received from being on this planet.

"Quite possible," he finally replied then said, "no, almost certain. Abandoned shuttle suggests previous contact with Citadel races, also, execution of kidnapping was masterfully done, also suggests past experience."

"But, how would they get away with that?" asked Lydia, "I mean sure, the Eclipse aren't exactly close but I think my buddies would notice if I suddenly went missing."

"Simple explanation, our occupations easily provide the excuse for our disappearances," answered Morroth, "look at us, Battle Master, assassin, STG, Eclipse, all of us dangerous jobs with high level risk. Very easy to believe that we perhaps died while performing our respective duties, in addition our occupations have no relations beyond violence, thus there is no pattern to follow."

"Hmm, clever bastards," Lydia muttered with begrudging respect,

The rest of the time was spent in silence, the 5 minutes of rest and waiting were soon up, and neither Kath nor Gornol had shown up.

"I guess we'd better start moving," A'lez said grimly,

No one wanted to move on, they all wanted to just stay there on the bank, unmoving till night came. But they also all knew that if they didn't move on, they'd might as well be committing suicide.

With a palpable sense of despair, the assortment of killers moved to their feet and began to trek. Just as they began to enter the bush of the jungle again, a deafening and inhuman roar suddenly cracked through the air, causing all to pause and listen to the echo.

The group of killers, suddenly found new purpose in their steps, and began to move.

"I guess that answers what happened to them," quipped A'lez as their group moved through the foliage,

"Maybe," replied Wrex, "but it could have only been one of them, which would mean that there's still a possibility that one of them is alive"

"Do you really believe that?" asked the Asari,

Wrex didn't respond, in his heart he probably knew that both of them were most likely dead. Still, for the sake of the group's ever dwindling moral, he had to keep up the façade that it was possible that one of them was still out there.

"Where are we going?" asked Tosh,

"Anywhere that's not here!"

The Cerberus operative couldn't argue with that, they could all agree that the safest place to be was as far away from those roars as possible. At the very least, they could delay the inevitability of death for a while longer.

(*%&) (#*%&)#(&*%()#*%& ()#*&%()#*&%() #&%) #(&*%) #*(%&)

Many hours went by as the group of misfit killers continued their escape through the jungle. Together they blindly dashed through greenery, slowing down from running to jogging after they began to grow tired. It mattered not what direction they were going, because they only moved for the sake of moving.

Though after some time, the sky began to darken as the sun spent it's last hours providing light to the planet. In addition, some of the members of the group were starting to feel the effects of such a long and brutal trek.

Zekk was the first to start falling behind. At the beginning he had started near the front of the line, just behind Thane. Now the Quarian just barely managed to tail the back of the line with stumbling halfhearted steps.

Eventually, the young pilgrim collapsed altogether with a loud thump.

The line immediately stopped, Thane was the first to notice the young Quarian on the ground and quickly rushed to Zekk's side.

Thane grabbed Zekk under the armpit as the Quarian attempted to rise back up.

"I'm fine," he assured breathlessly, "I just...*huff*…need…*huff*…to catch my breath"

Thane who while not as badly as Zekk, was similarly out of breath.

"Wrex, we need to take a rest,"

"We can't," insisted the Krogan, "not yet, those hunters could still be tailing us. As long as they move, we move to."

"Stumbling around in the dark half dead isn't going to help us when those things catch up to us," A'lez pointed out, everyone took note that she had said when and not if, "we need somewhere to rest ourselves, we're in no shape to fight as it is."

"I second the blue chick," Lydia said through deep breaths, "I don't know how much longer I can go on, I doubt I could even lift my launcher at this point, let alone go round 2 with our friends."

Wrex after some thought, conceded to their decision. They were all mortal after all, the problem however was that at the moment there was no place they could rest except for the bushes of the jungle and Wrex knew those would provide little to no protection against the hunters.

"Alright," he said, "let's spend our remaining sunlight looking for a place to hunker down for the night,"

The group all agreed to the new plan and began to spread out in search for somewhere to rest their heads for the impending darkness. At Wrex's insistence and at the great cooperation of the group, all members made sure that they had a clear line of sight of at least two other members at all times.

The hunters had already proven to be stealthy adversaries, they could spare no quarter in keeping themselves safe.

After they had spent enough time to where the sun was beginning to set, they group finally found somewhere that they might rest.

"Hey, over here!" called A'lez,

The group immediately converged on the Asari spectre.

"Up there" she pointed,

The group all turned to see that she was pointing, a mountain, more specifically, a very large rock face that was part of a much larger mountain.

"Up there?" asked Zekk,

"Why not?" A'lez asked back, "I don't know about you, but I'm a bit tired of getting grass stains on my armor."

"Well, yeah, but how do we get up there?"

"It looks like there's a path on the side," mentioned Lydia, "we could try that"

"Well, we don't exactly have a lot of time to find another place to settle down," pointed out Wrex, "may as well try."

There was a collective groan, but no out right complaining. The group trudged over to the rocky path and began their ascent up the mountain's toe. As it turned out, the actual path was much steeper than initially anticipated, as such the group half crawled half climbed up to their destination.

More than once someone put their foot on a loose rock and nearly tumbled back down to the forest floor. When they finally reached the top, the team was even more worn out than when they had stopped running, fortunately, they managed to find a sheltered place to rest in the form of a large curved rock formation that created something of a roof over their heads.

Adding to their fortunate find was that there were small pools of water that had eroded their way into miniature lakes in the rocky surface.

"It's clean," announced Morroth after scanning it,

The team drank from the pools greedily, using their hands to scoop up dripping mouthfuls. In Wrex's case, he just stuck his head into the pool and slurped up the water.

When the team had had their fill of water, they turned to trying to find something to eat. None of them had eaten in quite a while, in fact they had all probably skipped at least 5 meals in the past few days in order to ration what they had.

Fortunately, the water that had given them something to drink, also provided them something to eat. Large birds, about the size of earth's Turkeys, came flying down onto the rock to partake of the life giving liquid.

They had sharp looking short beaks and had colorfully painted feathers that ranged from the darkest reds to the deepest blues. A defining feature seemed to be the two long feathers on their hindquarters as well as the fact that they all had four eyes instead of two.

Still, the group was hungry enough that they didn't so much care for what it looked like. A few well placed shots gained them three of the large birds, which were then set to roast upon a large fire.

"I hope these don't give us something," remarked Lydia, "that would suck,"

The Eclipse Mercenary leaned her head against Thane's shoulder, who was too tired to do anything about it.

They were all tired.

It could be attributed to their tiredness as to the reason why they didn't hear the large thundering footsteps approaching their camp until it was almost too late.

Thane was the first to notice, his highly attuned senses picked up the vibrations in the rock and quickly stood up and drew his pistol. Everyone else began to feel the vibrations as well and quickly armed themselves.

"Is it them?" Zekk asked nervously,

"No," replied Thane, "it feels bigger"

Morroth and Tosh turned on their omni-lights and shined them towards the source of the vibrations. What they revealed was a truly monstrous creature.

It had four pairs of eyes, hellish red scaly skin that seemed to act almost as a natural armor. A huge muscular body which dwarfed even Wrex in pure muscle mass and a pair of arms that were as thick as tree trunks. It's mouth was triangular, adorned with sharp teeth that made it's maw almost look like an iron maiden. The thing's head was wide and sprouted two blunt horns on the top of it's head.

"Yahg!" announced Tosh,

The large alien let out a threatening growl,

"It must have smelled the food we were cooking," realized Thane,

"What the hell is it doing here?" asked Lydia,

The Yahg began to circle to their left,

"Must have been captured like us," Morroth answered quietly, "see, look, cut marks across its chest and on its face."

A closer inspection revealed that the Yahg was indeed scarred across its chest and face, in fact on of its eyes was missing.

"What do we do?" asked Zekk,

"Stand your ground," replied Wrex,

"Not good idea," said Morroth, "Yahg is apex predator, fears nothing, does not have instinct to back down,"

"Don't worry, I've fought Yahg before," assured the Krogan,

"What did you do then?" asked Zekk,

"Usually I just shot it till it dropped,"

"Why aren't we doing that now?"

"Because when Yahg attack, they don't hesitate," answered Wrex, "but this one, it's hesitating."

The group turned their attention back to the hulking alien that was currently circling their perimeter. The Yahg was noticeably shuffling between advancing and retreating, as if afraid of whatever retaliation their group could muster against it.

"Don't turn away," ordered Wrex, "look directly back at it, don't show any fear"

The Yahg let out another menacing growl as a clear scare tactic. It jumped up and down, made mock charges, bared its teeth and made swings at them with its three fingered hands.

Finally it let out another loud growl and charged right at them with more speed than any of it's previous ones. Wrex, not missing a step, charged right back with his shotgun raised.

The Yahg quickly slowed itself to a halt and peddled back.

It's bluff called, the Yahg cautiously backed away from the group. Eventually it disappeared from sight altogether, there was a loud crash as it jumped off the rock and back into the forest.

"Whew, that was close," remarked A'lez,

"Interesting behavior," noted Morroth, "possibly a result of being hunted on planet, no longer apex predator, fears for its life, hesitant to attack us."

"Well, whatever the reason, it's gone now," said Wrex as he sat back down in front of the fire, "these birds look done now, they better taste good, I nearly got run over for them"

The birds were taken of their spits and equally divided among the group, save Zekk, who simply ate his ration bars.

"Not bad," said Lydia as she bit into a leg, "a bit gamey though"

"Eat as much as you can," said Thane, taking a wing "we don't know when we'll find food again and we don't have the means to preserve any of this."

"Not to mention de tings that might be attracted by de smell," added Tosh,

The group was very happy to comply, each bird was stripped down to the bone as they all ravenously ate. After the small feast was finished, the group tossed the bones off the edge of the rocks so that whatever scent still lingered would not be traced to them.

"I'll take the first watch," volunteered Tosh,

Wrex nodded, "wake someone else to take your spot in two hours, if anyone has to piss, do it with partner"

With that said, the Krogan rested himself onto the hard rocky surface beneath them and quickly found sleep. Thane as usual, positioned himself against their shelter's wall so that he was sitting up, Lydia naturally, found her way to his side and place her head against his chest.

Morroth and A'lez slept near the edge of the shelter and Tosh took up watch near the entrance.

( #*%&)#( *%&)(%&*) #&%)( #%&*)#&% )(&%*)(&*% #)

Elsewhere, under the moon light, the body of a fallen warrior is dragged through the dirt to the layer of those who rule the planet.

The Krogan's body is moved with ease, it's killer throws it upon a large flat slab of stone near a huge roaring fire that bathes the entire camp in a primal light.

The hunter unsheathes a knife from his belt and sinks it into the back of the Krogan, drawing a line down the spine. The great white one peels away the layers of armor and finds the soft flesh underneath. Once again the great white one cuts down with his knife, this time cutting into the body of his kill.

With a satisfactory cut made, the white hunter thrusts his hand through the bloody gash and reaches for his prize. He feels through the bloody and soft meat until finally he finds what he wants. His fingers curl around the spinal cord, then with a powerful jerk, he rips it from the Krogan's body, unveiling it to the outside world. The hunter works his way up to the neck, then finally tears the skull from the body, leaving nothing but a flopping shell of skin.

The white one lifts the red plastered skull to his eyes and admires his newest trophy. The Krogan had been a worthy opponent, but there were still others out there to hunt.

The thought brought pleasure to his mind.

He placed the newest addition of his collection on his trophy wall inside of his ship, right next to the Turian and Vorcha.

To the side, the collector of bones placed his trophy, the human, upon his own wall.

Then next to him, the spiked one placed the skull of the Batarian on display.

But oh, there were still spaces empty on all of their trophy racks, which meant plenty more kills to be made.

(#*%&)(*%&#( )*%&()*&%)( #&*%)(*#%& #()%*& *%& ()#%&*)

The night went by relatively undisturbed.

Wrex had taken the last shift for the watch; as such he was awake when the sun finally rose into the sky to banish the darkness of night.

Eventually all the members of the group were aroused from their slumbering.

There was no breakfast to be had, as usual.

Then, they began walking. There was no meeting for a plan, no questions on what to do next, they just started walking. That was their plan from now on, just keep walking till they were out of the jungle.

No one wanted to go back into the jungle, so there was a silent yet unanimous vote that they stay on the rocks and try to keep to the foot of the mountain.

The stone was harder than the soft terrain of the jungle and there was next to no protection for them from the blisteringly hot rays of the sun. But at least up there, they didn't have to worry about one of them being dragged off by ghosts, running into a trap, or getting shot from the canopy.

"I wonder why they do this," Zekk suddenly asked as they were walking,

"Why they do what?" Lydia asked back,

"This whole kidnapping us thing, then tracking us down" he replied, "it just seems…I don't know, unproductive"

"Maybe they just think it's fun," suggested A'lez, "plenty of people go out on safari and shoot game because it's fun."

"Yeah, but, usually the game doesn't have guns," pointed out Zekk,

"Kid, considering what we've been going through, it might as well be like we don't have guns," Lydia said grimly,

"How long do you think they've been doing this?" asked Zekk,

"Decades, Centuries, Millenniums, who cares," Tosh replied,

"You know, you'd think with how good they are at killing people, these guys would've taken over the galaxy or something,"

Thane chuckled at the Quarian's naivety, "warfare and hunting are two very different things Zekk,"

"Still, you'd think we would've heard something about them,"

"They must be good at covering their tracks," reasoned A'lez, "I haven't even heard anything similar to them in spectre intelligence."

"Maybe the Council should give them a job," joked Lydia, "give them a year, bet they'd clear out the whole criminal underworld,"

That brought out a collective chuckle from the whole group.

"Hey, if you guys knew you were going to get home, I mean like you could see into the future or something, what would you plan to do, first minute you got back?" asked Lydia,

"Take a shower," A'lez said immediately, "then get a drink"

"Amen to that,"

"I'd probably go to the bar too," said Zekk, "not to drink, just to see Kat."

"Atta boy, you got your priorities straight, sex first, drink later," teased Lydia,

"No, I'd just be fine with…"

Lydia chuckled,

"Oh, you were joking,"

"Mostly" replied the mercenary, "what about you sexy?"

"Find a nice quiet place to rest for a long time," replied Thane,

"Need company?" Thane didn't respond, "what about you boss?"

"Get back to my clan and have them record the adventure,"

"You think they'd believe you?"

"Of course they will, I'm the clan leader,"

"Hmm, really? What about you voodoo dude-oof!" Lydia ran right into Thane's back, "hey, what's the hold up?"

Lydia looked to the front to see that Wrex had stopped and was currently looking out into the distance at something.

"Hey? Whatch ya looking at?" she asked, walking up a small incline to stand next to Wrex, then she saw what he was staring at, "whoa"

The rest of the group quickly walked up to see what had bewildered 3 members of their party. As soon as they too saw it, they became bewildered as well.

What they saw was something that could only be described as a giant drilling platform, except on land!

The expanse of rock before them was incredibly large and some what wavy, like an ocean of stone. Much like where they had camped last night, it was dotted with shallow pools of water that had most likely carved their way into the stone over time.

The drilling station was stationed half on the flat expanse of rock and half into the steep incline of the mountain. It was very similar to what you'd expect from a drilling platform. Large, box like, and full of machinery, the platform also noticeably sported smoke stacks, the tallest part of the platform looked to be a radio tower, possibly a working radio tower.

"Hey, you think that could work?" asked Lydia, pointing at the structure,

The group turned to Zekk, their tech expert,

"Uh…I guess I could take a crack at it," he said nervously,

"Well, then that's where we're heading," announced Wrex, no one argued.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was hope that they might be able to go home.

( #*(%&)*&% )#(*%&)(&*#%) (#*&%)(#* &%)&%* #)(%&*) #%&*)

The Hunters devoured hope like a lion devours its prey.

Three ghostly silhouettes watched as what remained of the prey they had brought to their planet began to run towards the old drilling facility, most likely with the idea that perhaps they could fix the radio tower and call for help.

Such an idea was not farfetched. The facility had been left untouched ever since it had been abandoned by its creators. Now it would be used as part of their hunt.

The middle silhouette purred with delight, with a mighty leap he jumped from his rocky perch and landed gracefully on the ground. Two loud thumps behind him told him that his brothers followed, undoubtedly they too were eager to hunt.

The Hunters would allow the prey to reach to facility, they'd even let them find the radio room.

But just to make the hunt more interesting.

(( #*%&)(*&%)( #%&)( #*&%()*&% #)(&%*) (#%&*)(#%&*) (&%) #&%)

When the group reached the drilling platform, they could see that it actually went into the mountain. But that made it harder for the group, since they had all initially believe that they could just climb up the slope then jump onto the platform with little effort.

Now, they had to spend time searching for the actual entrance.

But thankfully, the actual entrance turned out to be quite easy to find. The creators of the platform must have used some sort of vehicles because it took them only a few minutes to find the garage, and even better, someone had left the door open.

The group walked cautiously into the dark, large, empty space. After spending so much time outside, being inside suddenly felt a bit claustrophobic. Thankfully the garage was empty and plenty big, Wrex and Thane both guessed that it could have probably been used to hold 2 Normandy's.

"Looks like whoever built dis place cleaned out good," observed Tosh, "I don't see any supply crates, or any leftover equipment."

The team moved towards the only door, which was unsurprisingly automatic, but out of power.

"This is what happens when we rely too much on technology," remarked A'lez, "whoever built this place probably cut the power too, all these door might as well be walls."

"Yeah, well, walls can be smashed down," pointed out Lydia, the merc unslung her grenade launcher and took aim, "stand back!"

"Whoa wait!" protested Zekk, stepping into her line of fire, "let me try first"

Lydia shrugged and turned the barrel of the launcher away from the door.

"Whew," breathed Zekk, "alright, lets see what we've got here"

The Quarian knelt down by what looked like the door controls, "anyone got any tools?"

"What do you need?" asked Wrex,

"Something to pry this panel-"

Wrex grabbed the panel and tore it off with one hand,

"Oh, that works too,"

The Quarian immediately began to work, shifting through wires and using his Omni tool to do various tasks. After a few minutes of tinkering, a bright zap of electricity shot out from his Omni tool, a second later the door slid open.

"Nice work" complimented A'lez,

"I think we should try and find the generator first," suggested Zekk, "I don't think we want to have to do that every time we come to a door."

"Agreed," said Wrex, "it'd take too long"

"Are we in a rush?" asked A'lez,

"We haven't seen those things in a while, which probably means they're right behind us," replied Wrex as he unholstered his shotgun and walked through,

More than one of them took a quick glance back before following after.

The halls of the facility were what they all expected to be. Dark and relatively narrow, they were all forced to walk in two lines for that was all the hallway could accommodate. It certainly did a good job of giving the team a claustrophobic feeling.

The walls were lined with old pipes and valves; then there was the fact that every time they took a step it made a loud clanging noise.

Thankfully nothing jumped out at them like they expected to have happen.

"If I were a generator, where would I be?" asked Wrex,

"At the bottom," answered Zekk,

"And the radio room?" asked Thane,

"The top"

"Damn," cursed Lydia, the rest had to agree,

"Should we split up?" asked Morroth,

"I think we all know how that ends," replied Wrex as they continued moving on,

They approached a room that thankfully had no door, it was moderately spacious and had a multitude of screens set up.

"Looks like some sort of security room," observed Zekk as he ran a hand over a dust covered screen, "too bad the generator isn't on, otherwise we could really use this."

"Maybe still can," said Morroth, "standard facility protocols for many species, even before contact with others, have long been that the security room and all of its cameras run on an independent generator. That way should the main generator fail, the cameras can still be of use."

The Salarian turned to a door located at the back of the room. He turned to the door's control panel and motioned for Zekk to get the work. This one took the Quarian half the time of the first one, but was jammed by something when it tried to open.

"I've got this," said Wrex, placing his two hands on either side of the sliding door, he brutally forced the door open with a teeth grinding screech.

The Salarian entered the room and flicked on his Omni light and sure enough, found what was definitely appeared to be a power generator.

Morroth took a quick second to glance over the generator before pulling down a leaver. The generator suddenly began to cough back to life. With a creak the turbines began to turn and before long the room was filled with the sound of working machinery.

The screens in the adjacent room immediately flickered to life. A few showed only static but the majority of the screens brought up relatively clear images of the dark halls of the facility.

"Finally, some luck," said Thane,

"Alright," said Zekk, sitting down in front of the screen controls, "let's see what I can do"

The Quarian's hands became a blur of motion as he pressed buttons, flipped switches, and dragged slides.

"How do you know how to work this?" asked Thane,

"I don't, I'm just doing things at random," admitted Zekk,

"Then you are a very lucky Quarian,"

A few more minutes passed before Zekk announced, "I think I've found a map of the system."

"Show us," ordered Wrex,

Zekk pressed a button, a medium sized holographic display popped up from the panels. It showed the entire structure's layout, every hallway, every room, every crevice.

"It looks like I was right, the radio control room is on the top level and the main generator room is on the bottom," Zekk pointed to the two respective rooms on the diagram, "We can't use the radio until we turn on the main generator, so we should head there first"

"Hey look what I found!"

Everyone turned to see Lydia carrying two small box like contraptions. She handed one to Thane then lifted the other to her mouth.

"Lydia to base, I have spotted a sexy Drell, please advise on how to proceed, over," she spoke, which came out of the box that Thane was holding,

"Pretty neat huh? My dad told me stories of these things, I think they're called, walkie-mockies or something,"

"Walkie-talkies?" offered Zekk,

"Yeah, that's right"

"That could be useful," suggested Wrex, "but enough fooling around, let's find that generator"

( #(%*&)(*%&()*#&%() #*&%()#%&*)(#%&)(*YF)(*&D)(*&FS)(*&

And so the group of killers descended back into the winding dark maze like halls of the facility. Oddly enough, nothing happened to them on their way to the generator room, which was quite unsettling. The hunters didn't seem like the type to give up midgame, and they certainly didn't seem to need as much rest as those in the group did.

So that could only mean two things: One, the hunters were out there somewhere, planning their attack. Two, the hunters were stalking them at this very moment, watching over them and assessing how best to strike. Either possibility was not something anyone in the group wanted.

"Anyone else feeling crosshairs right about here?" asked A'lez, gesturing to her forehead,

_CLANG!_

The asari whipped around towards he noise, pistol in hand, as did the rest of the team.

"What was that?" asked Lydia,

"Wind?" suggested Morroth,

"Wind doesn't make that kind of sound," the mercenary growled back,

The team waited a five seconds, then ten, then twenty, then forty, nothing happened, but the group of killers kept their guard up. Each had learned well that these hunters were well trained in the art of stealth.

"Okay," whispered Wrex, "let's keep moving,"

Then added, "carefully"

The trip continued on with darting eyes, heavy breathing, and gun waving. The tension in the air was so thick, it was like you could cut through it with a knife.

_CLANG!_

"there was again!" whispered A'lez,

The group froze,

_CLANG!_

Again, but this time in a completely different direction

"Let's keep moving," ordered Wrex, the group hastily complied at a noticeably faster pace than before

_CLANG!_

"Definitely not the wind," said Lydia,

The group picked up the speed even more,

_CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

"Move it!"

The group broke out into a full blown sprint down the narrow hallways as the ominous sounds came closer and closer.

"Where's it coming from!"

_CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

"Just keep running!"

"Zekk how much further!?"

"It should be just down this next right!"

The group turned a sharp right into a new hallway as the sounds continued to chase them.

"Come out and fight!" demanded Tosh, Morroth quickly grabbed the human by the shoulder dragged him along,

"There!" announced Zekk, "through that door!"

The group reached the door only to find it out of power like all the others.

"Damn it!" cursed Wrex, "Zekk!"

"On it!" the Quarian tore off the the control panel's face and began to work,

"Everyone else cover that hallway!"

The group performed an about face and aimed their weapons down the passage they had just come down.

"Anything moves, shoot it," ordered Wrex,

Zekk worked through the tense moments as the group just waited for the hunters to come barreling down that hall to kill them all, or for them to pop up behind them and slit their throats.

"Zekk?"

"Almost there!"

"_kkk-kkkkkk-kkkk"_

"Hurry up man!" called A'lez,

"I'm trying, almost there!" Zekk shot back, his faceplate began to fog up, "come on baby come on!"

The door slid open

"Got it!" he announced, "I got-hg!"

Wrex whipped around to see the young Quarian up in the air with his boots three feet off the ground, being held up by an invisible assailant. The Quarian let out some strangled words while trying to reach for his holstered weapon, but he'd never find it for it had been dropped onto the floor.

"RAAAAAAH!"

Wrex roared a battle cry befitting of a Krogan and charged head first at the hunter. The cloaked alien noticed the charging hulk too late and found its feet dragging along the floor into the wide open generator room, as a Krogan's head smashed into his chest with an impressive amount of force.

Zekk was knocked right out of the hunter's grasp and fell to the floor with a new appreciation for oxygen. Thane was by his side,

"Are you alright?"

"Fine, go help Wrex"

The group heard a loud thump and turned to see that Wrex had amazingly been tossed to the ground with the invisible hunter now unveiled to their eyes. The hunter's spiked back suddenly came to life, producing a shoulder mounted cannon while it's mask turned on a familiar three dotted laser sight, aimed right for Wrex.

Tosh was the first to join the fray, he charged head first, firing his submachine gun. The bullets connected with the hunter but pinged off the alien's armor with no damage to itself.

The Cerberus operative closed t he distance between the two of them and struck out with his trusty shield. The slab of reinforce metal connected with the hunter's mask with a loud CLANG and caused to Hunter to jerk it's head to the side. Unfortunately, that's all it did.

Next thing he knew, the Cerberus Operative took a powerful backhand to the chin, sending him skidding across the ground on his back.

A'lez and Morroth were the next through the door, both carefully firing their weapons.

The hunter's laser sight popped up and settled on Morroth's chest, it's shoulder cannon began to glow.

A'lez saw and yelled, "hit the deck!"

Both the Salarian and Asari leaped to the side just as the cannon discharged and sent a brilliant blue ball of fire that struck the floor they'd just been standing on. The blast left a hole the size of a dinner plate in the metal plating beneath them.

But the Hunter wasn't done yet, he continued firing at the two aliens, keeping them from retaliating.

Just as it seemed it would finally hit one of its targets, something blindsided the hunter across the side of it's head. It turned out to be Thane, who'd delivered a powerful kick to its head.

Wrex, who had now recovered, charged the hunter again, this time knocking it off its feet and on to the ground.

The Krogan wound his fist back to deliver a punch, but was forced to abort when the hunter unsheathed it's wrist blades and threatened to gut him like a pig.

The hunter jumped back to its feet and activated its cloak, its eyes flashing one last time as if to warn the gathered killers.

Thane took advantage of the small lull to command Zekk to go turn on the generator and for Lydia to escort him.

"I'll wear him like a thong sexy!" she called back,

The Quarian and Eclipse merc, rushed towards the row of very large generators located on the side of the room. Zekk quickly located the main controls and began the process of trying to figure out which lever turned on the system.

"Alright, come on, come on be good to me," he pleaded.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew fired their weapons on the impossibly fast moving invisible silhouette that was being chased by their bullets around the room.

"Die!" roared Tosh, "Die! I'm gonna bleed you onto de floor and-"

His ranting was cut short when something suddenly hit him from the side and smashed him into the hard wall of the room. When the human reopened his eyes, he found himself entangled by a thousand diamonds made of wire, a net! He'd been caught in a net like some animal!

"Help!" he called, to add to his trapped state, the net began to close in on him. He quickly placed his shield between himself and the ever tightening trap, but it gradually continued to close on him nonetheless.

Thane and Morroth noticed Tosh's plight and quickly rushed to his aid, leaving Wrex and A'lez to deal with the hunter.

"It's closing in!" Tosh yelled when they arrived,

Thane grabbed the net and tried to pull back but quickly let go when he found that the material it was made of was actually razor sharp, just by touch it he'd acquired cuts upon his palms.

"Too sharp, must fight fire with fire!" said Morroth, raising his left hand he produced his omni-blade and quickly sliced a large gap into the net, but still it continued.

Tosh's eyes suddenly became very wide, "Look out!"

The Salarian and Drell whipped around just in time to see a second hunter with a tomahawk about to slice off their heads. The two ducked to either side, the hunter let out a growl.

It went after Morroth first, swing it's tomahawk down on the frail looking alien. Morroth quickly raised his omni-blade to deflect the blow. Even though he was initially successful, the pure force of the blow was enough to knock him onto the ground.

The hunter's bone decorated shoulder cannon revealed itself to blast Morroth to pieces. But just as it began to build up it's shot, it suddenly produced sparks and died.

The source had been a volley of bullets. The hunter whipped around to see that Thane had used his expert marksmanship to shoot its weapon.

With a growl, the Hunter cloaked itself and disappeared into the light.

Thane's eyes narrowed, he spotted a scuffle of movement to the side and fired. Another scuffle, he fired again.

Suddenly, an object was thrown out to his feet. A high pitched beeping was all the warning he needed to roll out of the way. An explosion followed, tearing a huge hole into the floor to reveal the bottomless pit below.

"Zekk!" bellowed Wrex as he reloaded his shotgun, "how much longer?!"

"Almost…almost there…got it!"

The generators spun to life and once dark room was filled with blinding light.

"Yes!" Zekk punched the air,

"Kid watch out!"

A plasma bolt struck the area right above Zekk's helmeted head.

"Yikes!"

The Quarian and Merc quickly ran to the less dangerous zone that was next to their comrades.

"How we doin?" asked Lydia as she added her fire to the mix,

"We're getting our asses kicked!" A'lez shouted back,

"The generators are online, let's get out of here!" ordered Wrex, "everyone! Back the way we came!"

The sound of more high pitched beeps filled the air as the hunters tossed more mines onto the ground.

"Run!" roared Wrex as he and three others rushed for the exit,

Explosions decorated the room, Thane and Morroth made one last ditch attempt to save Tosh but were knocked back by yet another explosion.

Thankfully, Morroth had cut just enough of the net for Tosh to use his shield to tear the rest and finally free himself.

"Guys come on!" A'lez called from the door as she continued to hold off the hunters,

Seeing that Tosh had freed himself, the two aliens attempted to make a beeline for the exit, only for a mine to fall right at their feet. The two jumped back and evaded the explosion well enough, but after having so many chunks taken out of it, part of the floor finally gave way.

Thane and Morroth fell into the impenetrable darkness without so much as a scream.

"Thane! Morroth!" called A'lez, a plasma bolt struck near her head, with anguish, she forced herself to retreat.

Tosh was the only one left in the room, he still had a chance to make it to the exit.

But before he could formulate a plan, a primal roar cut him off. The hunter decorated in bones suddenly appeared in his path with its tomahawk raised high.

Tosh quickly threw up his shield, a moment later, the tomahawk's head sliced through, stopping only inches away from his face. The human attempted to retaliate by shoving the predator back, but he was no match for its superior strength.

Instead, the predator grabbed the shield with its tomahawk still embedded into it, and ripped it right off of Tosh's arm and tossed it aside.

With his greatest asset suddenly gone, Tosh found himself feeling very vulnerable. He desperately fired off a few shots with his submachine, but he may as well have been firing blind.

The predator's tomahawk came down again, this time there was nothing to stop it.

Tosh screamed as his left arm was severed from his shoulder and dropped to the floor, his finger still pulling the trigger of his weapon adding the sound of gunfire to his screams.

But he didn't scream for long, he was silenced when the predator sank the head of its tomahawk into the human's neck. Tosh died instantly.

The predator grabbed a handful to the human's dreadlocks then continued hacking away at its neck until the head finally came off entirely.

A dark red pool of blood began to build around the body and the hunter's feet.

With a roar, it announced its victory and the acquiring of a new trophy to add to its collection.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Divide and be Conquered

Pain

That's what Thane Krios first felt as he came to consciousness, lots of pain. But unlike most people, pain was a good sign to the Drell assassin; it meant that he was still alive. But that also left room for the possibility that he was injured.

Wearily, his reptilian like eyes cracked open. At first, he was greeted by darkness, but as his eyes adjusted, he found that there was a small amount of light to be found. He opened his eyes all the way, and found that he was lying on his back, under a beam of light that came from what seemed to be about 50 ft.

The hunters! They had been attacking, the possibility that they were still out there was high.

Thane hastily rose, a lance of pain suddenly shot up his back but he gritted his teeth and continued to rise to his feet.

Thane quickly scanned his surrounding and spotted a form lying a few feet away.

"Morroth!" he quickly rushed to the Salarian's side and began to shake him by the shoulder.

The STG operative let out a small groan and opened his eyes to a squint, "head hurting, back sore, alive?"

"Yes," replied Thane , "can you stand?"

"I…believe so," Thane helped the Salarian stand; thankfully it seemed that beyond the soreness, he was unharmed.

"Others?" asked Morroth as he examined his rifle,

"Still above,"

Morroth nodded, then groaned. Thane could see why, the STG operative's Vindicator rifle had been damaged in the fall. The Salarian tossed the useless weapon away and unholstered his unique pistol.

"where are we?" asked Thane, looking around their surroundings,

"Unknown, but, eyes suggest a catacomb of…caves, below the facility"

Thane had to agree, the area they were in was dark but not so much that it rendered them both blind. But that just let the see the giant room of stone that surrounded them, peppered with holes large enough to fit some starcraft to travel through.

Before either of them could make a point to try and get back up to the facility, an ear splitting roar that was becoming all too familiar echoed down into the caves from above.

Thane quickly unholstered his own two sidearms, preferring their have rapid fire over the piercing rounds of his sniper rifle. Previous experience told him that the hunters wouldn't be leaving him enough room to use it anyway.

Five seconds passed before the two aliens tore their gaze from the roof.

"Thane, do you read me? Thane?!"

The voice came from the assassin's waist where he had clipped the walkie-talkie Lydia had found earlier. He quickly grabbed the device while Morroth kept a watch on the ceiling.

"Wrex?"

"Thane! Good to hear from you! Where are you!?"

(( #*&%()#*%& *()#&%()#*%& *()#&%) #(*&%) #(&*%) #%*&)

Wrex led what remained of his group of killers in a mad sprint down the winding hallways of the drilling facility that had become their one glimmer of hope to get off this hell hole of a planet. But that glimmer of hope was starting to look more like a kill house.

The Krogan stumbled into a wall as another bolt of blue plasma struck the low ceiling near his head.

"Keep running!"

"Well duh!" Lydia yelled back,

Another plasma bolt struck near the group, causing them all to duck their heads as sparks showered them from above.

"We're fish in a barrel!" cried Zekk, as he fired a few wild shots back down the hall,

"Lydia, you still got ammo for that grenade launcher?!" Krogan bellowed over the sound of gunfire,

"Yeah!"

"Blow the hall!"

"Oh fuck yes!" she purred, in one swift motion, Lydia spun on her heel in a complete 180, holstered her machinegun and pulled the Grenade Launcher from her back.

There was no need to aim, for she wasn't trying to kill their pursuers, just slow them down. Her weapons spat twice, producing two high explosive rounds that detonated against the walls of the hallway. The halls which had been weakened already from years of lack of attendance, finally gave way.

Rock and metal fell from the ceiling and began to clog up the passage containing both the predator and the prey.

"Yeah! Score one for the underdog!" just before the hall was completely blocked up by her handy work, Lydia gave the hunters a salute involving her middle finger.

The Eclipse mercenary's personal victory was cut short, when she suddenly felt a jab of pain slice through her left leg.

"Fuck!" she cried out as she fell to the floor,

Zekk and A'lez immediately heard their comrade's curse, quickly returning to aid her.

"She's hit!" said Zekk, pointing at the gaping wound in her thigh.

"Help me with her," ordered A'lez as she wrapped one of the human's arms around her neck,

Zekk mimicked the asari and together the two carried Lydia off before the hallway completely buried them in rubble.

From down the hallway, they could hear Wrex yelling.

"Thane, do you read me? Thane?!"

Wrex turned to see A'lez and Zekk dragging the wounded Lydia. Before he could ask what had happened, a voice broke out from the walkie-talkie he was holding,

"Wrex?"

The voice was obviously Thane's, a hopeful smile creased it's way onto Wrex's face. He gave a quick turn to his own group and said, "help her if you can"

The two nodded and began to inspect Lydia's wound. Upon closer examination, A'lez flinched, "ugh, nasty,"

"Sons of bitches," cursed Lydia, "the next time I see them I'm gonna blast their asses up so much that I, -gah!"

"Sorry," apologized Zekk, who had placed his hand near the wound,

"Do you even have any medical experience?" strained Lydia,

"Uh…well…"

"It's alright, I do, spectres need to know field surgery to qualify," assured A'lez,

"Whoa, did you say surgery?! You're not going to hack my leg off are you?"

"If we're lucky, it won't come to that," she replied, "now hold still so I can take a look at the damage"

Right off the bat, A'lez could see the problem. There was a 3 inch long piece of metal sticking out from Lydia's thigh muscle. As soon as A'lez made an attempt to dislodge it, Lydia began squirming and groaning.

"Ah! Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Stop whining so that I can fix you,"

"Easy for you to say," she shot back, "you don't have a piece of metal sticking out of your leg!"

"Look just bare with it for now," said A'lez, she gripped the metal stick, "this gonna hurt a lot, do you have anything to bite down on?"

Lydia promptly placed her armored wrist into her mouth,

"Okay, not exactly sanitary but it'll work, ready?"

Lydia gave a silent nod,

With a quick and sickening jerk, A'lez tore the metal prod from Lydia's leg. The mercenary let out a muffled scream and bit down hard on her wrist. The Asari Spectre grimaced as well, blood began to flow freely and bits of Lydia's flesh still clung to the projectile.

"Zekk, hold her still while I apply some medi-gel,"

"Got it" Zekk quickly behind the back bear hug, as he did, A'lez placed her left hand upon the open wound and began to use her Omni-tool to dispense the medi-gel. Instantly, the blood that flowed from the wound began to clot and the bleeding ceased.

"Aw man, that's definitely gonna get infected," muttered A'lez,

"I've got some disinfectant," said Zekk, reaching into his belt and pulling out a small bottle, "standard thing for Quarians to carry."

A'lez graciously took the bottle and began to spray its contents onto the wound in generous amounts. It stank of herbs and other such plants, but it could save the mercenary's leg. Out here, in the jungle, there were plenty of bugs to infect open wounds.

"I don't suppose you have something to wrap this in?"

Zekk went back to his belt and produced a roll of cloth, "just in case my suit ever got punctured."

A'lez took the cloth from him and quickly set about wrapping it around Lydia's wound.

"Fuck!" groaned Lydia "do you have any pain killers?"

Zekk shook his head,

"Fuck!"

A'lez finished wrapping the wound after a few seconds then put then tore it from the roll and tied the wrap in a knot so that it would stay in place.

"Well, it's not perfect, but it should hold you," said A'lez as she attempted to wipe off the blood on her hands.

"Ugh, haven't you ever heard of painless procedures?" groaned Lydia as Zekk attempted to help her stand up.

"I didn't have anything to block the pain," reasoned A'lez, "besides, I didn't think you'd scream so much from such a small wound"

"Small wound?" cried Lydia, she grabbed the metal projectile from the Asari, "I had this thing, stuck all the way through my leg, you call that small?"

"Hey! Quiet down over there, I'm trying to talk," growled Wrex, then turned back to the walkie-talkie in his hands, "alright Thane, good luck to you."

"You as well,"

(*#%&()* #&%)(*%&)(#*%&) #(*&%)#(*&% )&( #%*()&)#%&)

"You as well," Thane spoke back into the device, he then replaced it upon his belt and continued to follow Morroth.

After the roar they had heard from above them and Wrex contacting them through the walkie-talkie that Lydia had luckily decided to pick up for her own amusement, the Drell and the Salarian had begun the process of looking for a way out of the endless catacombs of the cave.

The darkness of the cave was surprisingly less of a problem than initially perceived. As it turned out, each catacomb tunnel, led to other larger chambers of varying size. Most of these chambers had holes broken through their tops, allowing sunlight to enter down into the caves, and if there were no skylights to help them, Morroth's sidearm had a flashlight attachment that helped pave the way.

Their objective now was to find a way back up to the surface while Wrex and the others made their way to the facility's radio room and sent out a distress call that would hopefully be picked up. After that, they would regroup back outside and wait for rescue, assuming the hunters didn't kill them all.

Other than the darkness and the sound of their boots on the cold stone floor, nothing so far had really impeded them in their missing, everything was peacefully quiet. Which as always was a clear precursor that something horrible was going to happen, their prior experience had proven it to be true. That was why Morroth and Thane were on constant guard, never allowing their weapons to drop.

"I feel eyes upon us," whispered Thane as they cautiously walked into the next chamber,

"Possibly hunters, stalking us, preparing, waiting for opportune time to strike," Morroth whispered back erratically,

Their fears seemed to be confirmed, when a low growl suddenly echoed out from the darkness. Both assassin and commando froze where they stood and aimed their weapons down the direction the growl had come from.

Then, there was the sound of footsteps, and judging by the sound of said footsteps, whatever was approaching was very large.

Out from one of the tunnels, came a huge horned head, covered in scaly red skin and having a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

"Yahg!" Thane whispered harshly, "make no sudden movements"

"On the ridge to the right!" Morroth whispered back, Thane shifted his vision to the large rock formation where another tunnel opened up to and saw another Yahg staring down at them from above.

Another growl from the left caught their attention; there they saw yet another one glaring at them from the darkness of the tunnel it hid inside of.

"They must be a pack," whispered Morroth,

"I thought Yahg were independent creatures," Thane whispered back as the two of them began to slowly back away,

"Yahg adaptable creatures, possibly became aware that there are strength in numbers on this planet," explained Morroth, "tunnel behind us, if we leave, most likely will not harm us."

"Agreed"

The trio of bulky creatures never shifted their murderous gaze from the two aliens. They watched them back away into one of the tunnels, creeping forward ever so slightly to assert their dominance. Before long, Thane and Morroth were gone from the cave.

From a perch up high, something else watched from afar.

($%(&* #)(*%&#() *%& #()%*&)*(#%& )(#*%&)#( &*%) #(&%*) &*)

Wrex peaked his crested head down the hallway, making sure that nothing was immediately threatening them, he gave the all clear signal to the rest of the team.

Zekk was the first one to move up and join him, followed by Lydia who had to be supported by A'lez.

"Alright, which way now?" asked Wrex,

"Uh…that way," Zekk pointed to the left, "it should be that way, then from there, we climb a flight of stairs all the way to the top floor where the radio room should be."

"Alright good, I'll take point," said Wrex, "the rest of you follow close, I don't know if we're in any shape for another fight with those things."

The group of four made their way down the hall and just as Zekk had said, there was a large flight of stairs that seemed to stretch all the way to the top floor.

"This just screams trap," muttered Wrex,

"Not like we have any other choice," Zekk pointed out grimly,

"Hey, I've got a brilliant idea, what about an elevator?" said Lydia, her voice dripping with sarcasm,

"Oh yeah, that's a brilliant idea, trap ourselves in a tiny little metal box that takes forever to get to where we want it to," A'lez shot back,

"Point taken,"

"She's right, I've been on a lot of elevators, they take forever," said Wrex,

With that decided, the group began to climb the first of many steps up to their destination. The climb was hard since they needed to stick together and one of them was badly injured and in no condition to even be walking. But they gradually progressed to their objective.

"Hey, uh, Wrex?"

"What is it kid?"

"Do you…do you think Thane and Morroth are gonna be okay?" Zekk asked hopefully,

Wrex chewed his scaly lip as he mulled over how to answer the question. The kid was obviously hoping that Wrex would say that Thane and Morroth had probably already made it to the surface and were headed towards them right now, but Wrex knew that lying would probably do more damage than the truth.

"I don't know kid," Wrex answered truthfully, "Thane and the Salarian are tough bastards, but these things, they're unlike anything I've ever fought before. Personally I think the only reason we're all still alive is because they want to drag this little hunt of theirs out as long as possible. While we're here shooting at shadows and jumping at our own footsteps, they're probably having the time of their life."

Zekk swallowed hard, obviously not encouraged.

"But," added Wrex, "that's the reason we still have a chance, these thing underestimate us. They won't be ready when we hit them hard"

The young Quarian seemed to be heartened at the Battle Master's reassurance. Wrex gave him a pat on the back, don't worry kid, we'll get through this. Zekk nodded.

'I hope' Wrex thought to himself privately,

By then, the four of them had reached the top of the flight and were much closer to their destination. It was evident that combined with the lack of recent attacks and the fact that they were so close to their chance to escape, the group had become much more energetic. That was good, Wrex didn't want to have to threaten them to keep on moving.

"Alright, which way now?"

"let me think…it should be-"

"Get down!"

"Wha-" Zekk was suddenly tackled aside by 400 pounds of Krogan, A'lez was about to ask what was going on, when a bold of blue plasma suddenly shot out from the piping of the ceiling and struck Wrex right in the shoulder.

The Krogan went down with a growl, but somehow miraculously stayed alive and fired back with his shotgun.

"Run!" he yelled, "Zekk!"

The Qurian who had been dazed by coming so close to death was pulled back to reality by the Krogan's calls.

"Take point!" ordered Wrex,

Zekk quickly jumped to his feet, "this way!"

The young Quarian lead the way down the hall, while A'lez and Lydia followed close behind and Wrex covered the back. Zekk took a left, making sure to keep his submachine gun out and to check the corners for any cloaked hunters.

Soon the group found their way to a door with some words above it written in some sort of undecipherable language. Zekk couldn't read it, but he was pretty sure that it was the radio room. Thankfully, ever since they'd restored the power, all of the automatic doors had begun to work again.

This one slid open as soon as they closed in on it, allowing all four of them to swiftly enter. Zekk entered first and waved his weapon from side to side.

"Clear!" he called,

The group all too happily rushed inside with bolts of plasma trailing them as they went. As soon as they were all safely inside, Zekk hit the combination on the control panel to lock the door. The thick slab of metal slammed shut and magnetically sealed itself to the floor.

Just as he was about to say that they were safe, Zekk jumped away from the door when there was an abrupt slamming sound from the door.

The four of them quickly leveled their guns at the door.

"It must be trying to break through," realized A'lez,

"I hope it does," whispered Lydia, "so I can blow it to kingdom come!"

The hunter continued slamming against the door, it beat against it like a drum, causing a steady stream of loud reverberations in their room. After a few tense seconds of waiting while the hunter continued to beat against their protection, it finally ceased.

"I think it's gone," whispered Zekk,

"For now," Wrex whispered back, "but it'll be back,"

The Krogan suddenly groaned painfully, he reached two fingers under his armor's shoulder pad. He winced and pulled his fingers out to show that they were covered in blood.

"You're hit," said A'lez, "you're bleeding"

"I don't have time to bleed," growled Wrex as he pushed her away, "I've had worse, Zekk, do your thing"

"Right," said the Quarian who immediately sat down in front of a panel of buttons, knobs, and switches, "this may take a moment"

"How are you even still alive?" asked Lydia,

"I threw up a barrier at the last minute" explained Wrex, "you don't get to be as old as me by having slow thinking."

The Krogan then went about examining their surroundings.

The room itself was not that big, perhaps big enough to comfortably accommodate 8 people. The majority of its space was taken up by a large panel that was pressed up against a large window that covered half the walls. It provided the team with a rather breath taking view of the lush green jungle, if they were to stare out long enough, they might have even forgotten that it was a hunting ground.

"Come on," whispered Zekk as he fiddled with the foreign technology, "damn it!"

"What?" asked A'lez,

"I can't read this damn language," Zekk replied frustratedly,

"You managed to make all that other tech work, what's different about this one?"

"The difference is that if we want to use this station to get a signal out, we have to broadcast on the right frequency. But I can't get the right frequency if I can't even understand the damn language, it'd be like striking out blind," explained Zekk, with a sigh, he said, "looks like this was all for nothing"

"Why don't you just broadcast across all frequency's?" asked Lydia,

"That's…actually not a bad idea," said Zekk, immediately he began twisting the knobs and flipping switches, "I think, I can make a super broadcast, if I just…there that should do it…I think."

"Yes!" Lydia cheered, "score two!"

"Now all I need is to-"

_Beep_

"Is to-"

_Beep_

"Do you guys here that?"

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

Zekk looked up to the window and saw three flat metallic triangle shaped devices spread across the window wall, and all of them were glowing red and beeping. Bombs.

"Shit! Everyone get down!"

A second after he screamed the warning, the bombs triggered.

All Zekk saw was the burning light, then darkness.

( (*%& #*()%& #()*%& ()#*%&#)*(%& )#(%&)( #*&%)*( #%&)%#& ))

After their encounter with the Yahg, Morroth and Thane went about navigating the catacomb tunnels again in an attempt to find their way out so that they could regroup with the others.

As luck would have it, they did not have to search for much longer.

The two entered yet another chamber, this one was quite large. But what made it stick out from the others was that it was filled with a dozen or so naturally formed stone pillars. The pillars themselves ranged from around thirty to ten feet tall, but all were noticeably jagged, most likely due to erosion.

In addition, there were many shallow puddles around the floor of the chamber which supported the theory of erosion.

However, the thing that really set this apart from all others that had come before it, was that this chamber not only had light that came down from the ceiling's skylights, but also from a tunnel on the far side of the cave. They had found their exit.

Already Thane could smell the fresh grassy air that came from the jungle and its vegetation.

"Success," cheered Morroth, Thane smiled and nodded.

The two broke into a brisk jog towards the exit.

So happy were they to finally be free of their stone prison, that Thane nearly didn't see the small metal object being dropped right in front of their destination.

He noticed too late.

A bright blue explosion suddenly bathed the cave in unnatural light. The shockwave knocked Thane back at least twenty feet. Morroth, who took more of the explosion than Thane did, was tossed away like a leaf and smashed right into one of the pillars.

Thane was the first to show signs of life. With a pained groan, he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. He licked his lips and tasted blood, there was also a pain in his side which meant some of his ribs might have either been cracked or broken.

A bit clumsily, the Drell stood back up and saw Morroth laying on his side next to the pillar he'd collided with. Whether he was dead or simply unconscious was a mystery.

Thane was about to run over to the Salarian's side and see which, when he heard a loud splash echo through the cave.

"_kkkk-kkk-kkkk"_

Thane's eyes were drawn to the cave exit that they'd been originally running to. There he saw as invisible feet stepped through the shallow pond. Suddenly, small worms of electricity began to crawl their way up an invisible leg and eventually an invisible body.

Thane could now see the figure coming in view.

His eyes widened as the hunter slowly revealed itself as it confidently strode out of the pond and towards him.

The hunter was huge, much larger than either of the two the he'd seen before. It was at the very least an inch or two above eight feet tall. It's black dreadlock like hear, was in stark contrast to it's incredibly pale body. Thane suspected that perhaps it was an albino of its race.

But regardless of whatever it was, the alien walked with primal grace. Each step was swift despite its deceivingly large frame. Just by looking at it, Thane could tell that this one was an alpha among its kind, the top predator among predators. It's simple presence gave off an aura of authority, ferocity, and power.

Few things could make Thane Krios take pause, this hunter was one of them.

It took the assassin a moment to realize that the White Hunter was still taking it's time to walk towards him. Most likely it enjoyed the fear that it was undoubtedly creating.

Breaking from the hold of fear, Thane whipped out both of his Phalanx pistols and began to expertly squeeze off a volley of rounds at the approaching hunter.

With incredible grace and dexterity, the hunter switched from confident walk to ferocious animal, when it suddenly rolled to the side and avoided the string of bullets Thane had fired at it.

Thane quickly shifted his aim just in time to see the hunter begin to cloak itself again. The assassin quickly fired into what looked like thin air and turned out to be exactly that.

There was a whoosh of movement, it took a moment for the drell to realize that the hunter was making his way through the maze of pillars.

Then there was a strange short electronic sound that Thane recognized as the same sound the hunter's cloak made when it turned off.

He whipped around and sure enough, there stood the White Hunter, confidently lumbering towards him with its hands at its sides. That most of all worried Thane, keeping one's hand at their sides meant that this hunter felt confident enough to not raise a weapon.

Could it be that, this hunters skill was truly so great?

Thane threw out his thoughts and fired another volley. As expected the hunter dodged by rolling to the side, but this time Thane was ready and followed the hunter with a second volley.

If the White Hunter was caught off guard, it didn't show. Instead it simply jumped away a second time then cloaked itself again.

"_kkkk-kkk-kkkk"_

Thane quickly reloaded both his pistols.

The White Hunter suddenly burst out of its cloak in a full-fledged run at Thane. The assassin quickly raised his pistols and fired a quick burst, the hunter rolled to avoid while simultaneously re-cloaking itself.

Thane scanned the cave for movement.

He heard the sound of the cloak coming off to the side.

He turned towards it to see the hunter coming at him again, and again he fired of a burst. The White Hunter rolled away again while re-cloaking itself.

A third time, the hunter came back at him while purposefully revealing itself and for a third time when Thane retaliated it backed away unharmed.

'It's toying with me,' he realized,

After a few moments of no attacks, Thane wondered if perhaps it was devising a new strategy. His answer was a familiar red laser that suddenly appeared upon his chest.

Quicker than believable, Thane rolled to the side just as the White Hunter let loose a bolt from it's shoulder cannon. The assassin immediately holstered both of his sidearm and unslung his Mantis rifle.

He swiftly dodged another blast of plasma while taking metal note of where it had come from. As soon as he was able, he sighted down his enemy and saw the White Hunter standing proudly upon one of the many stone pillars.

Thane's finger jammed down on the trigger, the White Hunter must have been familiar with sniper weapons because it quickly ducked it's head and avoided the bullet entirely.

Being a one shot weapon, Thane was forced to reload. But by then the hunter had already disappeared.

But after a few moments, the laser sight found its way onto Thane's chest again. Before it could fire off a shot, Thane called upon his biotic power to throw a Warp at the alien.

The biotic missile flew at his enemy, but missed when the hunter leapt from its pillar onto another. But Thane had not wanted to hit his opponent, no he wanted to drive it to another pillar where he had already placed his sniper rifle's crosshairs.

The predator appeared and Thane pulled the trigger.

But his victory was not to be so, for the hunter jumped again as soon as it's feet hit the pillar. The bullet whizzed through its dreadlocks, severing one from its head but doing nothing more.

"how did he know?" whispered Thane,

The White Hunter had so far avoided all of his sniper rounds. Thane was in the process of reloading, when he saw the White Hunter reappear on a low pillar.

With no time to load in another shot, Thane once again called on his biotics and launched another Warp at it. This time, when the hunter dodged, Thane noticed that it was not quite as fast as the times he'd attempted to kill it with his rifle.

He reasoned that perhaps the scope of his rifle was giving him away, the hunter must have had some sort of detection system. If so, his rifle's effectiveness was just cut in half.

But Thane had not built his reputation by using the sniper rifle as his weapon of choice. No, most of the time he killed his targets by being up close and personal. As such, he rarely needed the assistance of a scoped weapon.

Thane placed his hand on the railing of his rifle and slid the scope off.

It was time to test his theory.

The White Hunter reappeared and fired another bolt of plasma. Thane rolled away and let the bolt hit the stone ground, he quickly shouldered his rifle and took aim with only iron sights to aid him.

The hunter did not move immediately, Thane fired.

At first nothing happened, then the hunter reached with his taloned hand to touch his left shoulder. When the hunter brought his hand back in front of his face, he found a small drop of blood, the bullet had grazed him. Thane's theory proved true.

But if the White Hunter was worried or caught off guard, it was not apparent in the least.

"_kkkk-kkk-kkkk"_

Thane slammed in a new clip and took aim again. The White Hunter disappeared just as Thane began to pull the trigger. By the time the next bullet was in the air, the White Hunter had already left.

Thane quickly reached for his next thermal clip, but was interrupted when a malice filled roar, closer than any other had been, ripped through his ear drums.

The Drell turned his eyes skywards to see the White Hunter revealing itself in midair, while it was hurdling towards him with a pair of jagged wrist blades.

Time seemed to slow down, the White Hunter was already so close ;it was amazing that the creature had jumped so far and gotten so close. Thane hadn't even heard the movement of its feet or the whoosh of the wind as it fell at him.

Not even the quickest assassin could have escaped from this creatures grasp. Not the quickest, yes, but what of the smartest.

After so many years of honing his skills to peak condition, so many years of using it to perform perfect assassinations, Thane's mind immediately told him what to do.

He stepped forward,

Most would have attempted to back away, but such a maneuver as this close of a range was a futile gesture. The White Hunter didn't need to be able to kill the moment he hit the ground, he just needed to close this distance. Backing away would have only prolonged the inevitable.

No, Thane chose to step forward, he then swiftly ducked into a crouch and rolled underneath the White Hunter's feet. As Thane began to come back up, he could hear the White Hunter's reach the ground with a heavy thud.

His mind estimated that he'd have at best 5 seconds before his opponent recovered from the landing and was able to swing around.

_One second_

Thane began to rise and shoulder his rifle

_Two seconds_

Thane spun on his heel while still in a half crouched position

_Three seconds_

The White Hunter began to turn

_Four seconds_

Thane placed the side of his opponent's head in his rifle's iron sights

_Five seconds_

Thane pulled the trigger

There was no blood, no death, not even a cry of pain. The White Hunter had proven his ability once again, he'd proven that he didn't need 5 seconds to turn. He just needed 4.

That last second, when Thane had pulled the trigger, the White Hunter had stretched out his hand and batted the barrel of the rifle away.

Now Thane was just holding a rifle with an empty clip.

His shock lasted only half a second, without hesitation he jumped back just as the White Hunter's wrist blades struck out.

Unfortunately, the tips of the weapons still found their mark across Thane's chest and carved two parallel lines of blood from collar bone to right pectoral.

The assassin flipped his rifle and held it by the barrel, wielding it like a club. He lashed out with a swing at the hunter's masked head.

The White Hunter's hand whipped up and caught the rifle by its stock then ripped it out of Thane's hands. Then, in a display of incredibly strength, the White hunter placed its second hand on the barrel of the rifle and squeezed its two hands together.

Thane's reptilian eye's widened as his Mantis rifle's form was bent into a V shape, the White Hunter then casually tossed the broken weapon aside and began walking towards its prey.

Thane whipped out one of his Phalanx pistols, but the White Hunter closed the distance between them and snatched the weapon out of Thane's hand then crushed it in its own.

The Drell had one last pistol, but knew that using it would only end in the same result. Now he was forced to use his deadliest weapon of all:

His hands

( #(*%&()*&#()*%&#()*%&()* #&%)*&) #(%&*)#(&%)( #*&%)&*%)

The first thing Zekk could feel, was pain.

The first thing Zekk could hear, was his friends.

The first thing Zekk could smell, was smoke.

He could feel, hear, and smell, which meant that….he was alive?

The young Quarian's eyes shot open, his vision was blurry at first. But then things began to come back into focus and saw that the walls were moving. After a few seconds, he then realized that he was actually the one that was moving.

Someone was carrying him,

He tried to speak, but instead let out a small groan.

"Finally awake back there?" asked a grizzly voice, Wrex.

"What happened?" he asked drowsily,

"We got fucked, that's what happened," answered Lydia, who was still being supported by A'lez,

"What Lydia means, is that the radio control room was destroyed," translated the Asari, "and so our idea to make a call for help is now no longer an option"

"Oh, I see," said Zekk,

"Can you walk?" asked Wrex,

"I…I think so,"

"Good, cause I'm tired of carrying your ass" Wrex abruptly placed Zekk down on his feet, the Quarian was a bit shaky at first but eventually managed to stand without help.

"So, what now?" asked Zekk, the entire group stopped. It became clear to the Quarian that they had initially been moving just so that they could move, there was no plan.

"God damn it!" cursed Zekk, he was at his boiling point, he couldn't take any more of this planet "I always thought, that I'd die in some firefight in some alleyway on Omega, or fighting Geth for the migrant fleet. Not holed up in some run down drilling facility, out in Keelah knows where, being hunted by someone for sport!"

The rest of the group was silent

"I guess I'm lucky I've made it this far in the first place,"

Zekk slumped against a wall, holding his helmeted head in his hand. A pang of pity struck each of the group members, among all of them Zekk deserved least to be here. He was still young and still had a lot he hadn't yet been able to do. Worst of all, Zekk had been the only one who had not yet accepted death as an option, not like the others. The rest of them, they all had accepted that there was a very high possibility that they were going to die.

Wrex stepped up and placed hand on Zekk's shoulder.

"I know this looks bad,"

"Looks bad, it's hopeless!"

"I know, but that's no excuse to just lie down and die,"

Zekk turned to the Krogan, "what, you still have a plan to get off this planet?"

"no," the Quarian's shoulder's drooped, "but I can make you feel better if you'd like."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"Cause our plan isn't to get off this planet anymore,"

"What is it?" Lydia and A'lez looked just as confused,

Wrex held up his shotgun, "we're gonna take our guns and we're gonna find those assholes that put us on this hellhole of a planet and we're gonna kill them."

A silence fell over the other three, surprisingly Zekk was the first to break it.

"Kill them?"

"All of them" nodded Wrex, "cause when you've got nothing left to lose, the only thing you can do, is take your gun and blow a whole bunch of shit up"

Lydia mulled the thought over, then said, "okay, I'm in"

A'lez nodded lightly, "why not, not like we've got anything else to do."

"But, what about Thane and Morroth?" asked Zekk,

"They're probably still down in those caves," said the Krogan, "let's go find them first,"

"Then kill everything?"

"Then kill everything"

With a new plan to follow, the group began to move once again.

"You still think Thane and Morroth are still alive?" asked A'lez in a hushed voice, Lydia smiled.

"Of course, nothing can kill my sexy"

(#*%)(*&#%) (#*%&)(*&#% )(*%&)#(*%& )%&*)& #%)

Thane lashed out with a quick strike at the hunter's chest, but once again it proved quicker than possible and caught the Drell's attack. It then twisted Thane's arm, leaving him open to a retaliatory back hand that sent him tumbling into a puddle of water.

Thane rubbed his jaw, it felt like he'd been hit by a concrete cinder block.

This would be difficult, the hunter had enough power behind his punches to knock Thane down for good with one solid blow. He would need to use his smaller size to his advantage.

The hunter made the first move, it swung a wide left hook that Thane quickly dodged. But that attack was followed by right uppercut, Thane used both his arms and caught the swing by the wrist.

The assassin then pushed the hunter's fist back down and performed a high kick that connected with the hunter's shoulder. There was a solid thump but the hunter barely stumbled and immediately retaliated with a straight right hook at the assassin's face. Thane side stepped the possibly fatal attack then grabbed the hunter's massive arm and trapped it under his armpit. He then used that as a handhold to jump up high and two successive kicks to the side of the hunter's head.

That caused the hunter to stumble back a little, but it quickly recovered.

Thane swung a punch at its neck, but the hunter dipped down low and locked Thane's arm with its own. Thane's arm would have broken if he hadn't suddenly cartwheeled, breaking the lock the hunter had on him.

The hunter was caught off guard, which let Thane deliver a kick to the inside of the hunter's knee, causing it to bend and forcing the hunter into an awkward position that allowed Thane to perform a high kick right into the hunter's chin causing it's head to snap back.

However, it once again quickly recovered and retaliated by unleashing a fury of left hooks. Thane blocked the hammering blows with his own arm, but the hunter suddenly changed the trajectory of its arm where it landed low on Thane's ribs, it then used its right hand to grab a handful of Thane's coat.

Using both hands, the hunter tossed Thane to the ground.

The assassin was momentarily dazed, but quickly recognized the foot coming down to stomp in his head. He quickly rolled to the side and jumped to his feet.

The hunter did not relent, it swung a right hook and missed, then swung another right hook. Thane dodged under, then swiftly shuffled behind the hunter and jumped onto its back, grabbing it in a chock hold.

The hunter attempted to reach up and toss the Drell of his back, but Thane wisely wrapped his legs around the hunter's waist. He attempted to reach for his pistol so that he could deliver the kill via execution style.

Without hesitation, the hunter rapidly backed up. Before Thane could let go, he found himself smashed and sandwiched by a pillar. His grip loosened on both his pistol and the hunter; the White Hunter then pried the assassin of his back and threw him onto the ground.

Thane attempted to rise, but the White Hunter suddenly kicked him in the stomach, sending the assassin away another ten feet. The Drell coughed hoarsely and saw his blood splatter the ground.

The White Hunter strode confidently towards the assassin, wanting to savor this fight.

Thane staggered to his feet, stumbling to keep his stance. When he the hunter coming for him he wisely backed up to maintain a distance between them, he wasn't going to win in a straightforward fight. He spared a glance to his back and noticed a stalagmite nearby.

As the hunter closed the distance between them, it lashed out with a backhand. But Thane gracefully ducked under and stepped in behind the hunter, but instead of attacking. He grabbed the stalagmite and swung himself on the formation, coming up in front of the hunter with two footed kick to its face.

The hunter for the first time reeled back, but not for long.

Thane called upon his biotics, a blue aura of power surrounded him, with a shove of his arms he sent the hunter sailing across the cave at least fifteen feet and into a pillar. The two met with a loud sickening smack that echoed through the cave.

At first, Thane thought that perhaps the hunter was dead. But there was no such luck for him, the hunter stood right back up. It gave a roll of its shoulders, then pressed on the side of its head and was rewarded with a loud cracking noise.

The hunter came back at him slowly at first with the slow confident walk Thane had seen before, but then began to pick up speed. Faster and faster and faster, until it was in a full fledge sprint. Thane tried to bring his biotics up again too slowly, four hundred pounds of pure muscle slammed into him with enough force the knock a sizeable glob of blood out of his mouth.

The hunter came to an abrupt halt and let Thane simply fall to the ground.

The Drell felt new pain in his body; agonizing, paralyzing, pain. As he tried to rise, he felt two strong hands grab him. Then he was in the air again, he suddenly had the wind knocked out of him as the White Hunter drove a fist into his stomach, then again, and again, and again. With a roll of its powerful shoulders it tossed the assassin into a pillar.

Thane found himself face down on the floor

His body refused to move.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the White Hunter walking towards him with that confident strut it liked to use. It seemed to enjoy seeing him suffer.

When it finally reached Thane it grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up to so that he was face to face with it.

The assassin had no more fight left in him, not even enough to try to break out of the hunter's grip. The White Hunter had simply been too strong for him, all his training, all his speed, all his skill was nothing against the White Hunter's raw power. Now, he would die for realizing that too late.

As if to confirm, Thane heard a sharp steely sound and saw the hunter raise its serrated wrist blades back.

Thane closed his eyes; it seemed that he would be joining Irikah across the sea. That was not such a bad thought.

Thane felt the White Hunter prepare, and he smiled.

I'm coming to you Irikah

**End**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I think this is the first time I've done an author's note for this story. But I thought I'd give you some insight into my thinking behind this chapter.**

**Obviously, the main focus of this chapter was The White Hunter, a giant hulking albino predator. He was always going to be my main big bad predator, but after watching the Dark Knight Rises and seeing Bane, it sort of redefined what big bad guy could be. I loved the way Bane always walked towards his enemies but could still be intimidating, because you knew once he reached you he would mess you up. So I wanted to do that for The White Hunter, I made him strut.**

**I hope you liked the chapter and I'm sure you're all wonder, will Thane die?**

**Well…I'm not gonna tell you, you'll just have to wait and see **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Double Kill

Wrex breathed in the smell of fresh air, after being in that stupid drilling platform for so long, it felt good to be out in the open again.

He took a quick glance at the position of the sun, it was midway through its descent behind the horizon. But there was still enough light that visibility wouldn't be a problem.

That in itself was a blessing as the first part of their new plan dictated that they needed to do quite a bit of searching. The first part was to regroup with Thane and the Salarian, the second part would be to kill the hunters.

"All right, let's get going," said Wrex,

"Which way?" asked A'lez,

"From what Thane told me while we were in the facility, him and the Salarian are stuck under this giant hunk of rock that we're standing on. Luckily, as it turns out, this hunk of rock is actually a catacomb of caves and tunnels," explained Wrex, "they're plan while we we're headed towards the radio room was to find a way out. So all we have to do, is meet up with them when they finally get out."

"Okay, but there's probably a lot of ways they could get out," A'lez pointed out, "how are we going to make sure that we meet up with them?"

"Thane mentioned that the catacomb caves had a lot of skylights, holes in the roof that let sunlight down and made it easier for them to see," said Wrex, "now, all we have to do, is look for a whole bunch of holes in the ground."

A'lez nodded, "make's sense"

"Before we move out, let's do an ammo count, what do we still have?"

A'lez went first, "I still have my sidearm, but only one clip left."

"I've still got my submachine gun, but only one clip left," said Zekk, "and my sidearm, two clips"

"Still got my submachine gun too," said Lydia, who had been handed off to Zekk to carry for a while, "and my Boom gun, only three shots left though."

"And my shotgun only has one clip, and my side arm has two," finished Wrex, "not exactly an arsenal, but it'll do."

"And what happens when we run out?" asked Lydia, "you want us to go into the jungle and make bows and arrows?"

"Don't be ridiculous," replied Wrex, "let's just start searching for their exit, if you happen to find them while looking, all the better."

The group dispersed and began looking down the large holes in the rock's surface. It was a rather boring activity, but the entire group welcomed it, especially after what they'd been put through for the past few days.

For Zekk and Lydia, it was a rather awkward process because the Quarian was forced to support the human wherever they walked. When they came to a hole in the rock, Zekk had to make sure he didn't accidently let Lydia slip while he peered over the edge.

"Thane! Morroth! You down there?!" he called, his voice echoing a few times as it traveled down, as expected there was no response.

"On to the next one then," said Lydia,

Zekk nodded and began to carry the two of them towards the nearest hole.

"Come on, hurry it up," Lydia said jokingly, "I've been separated from my sexy for too long"

"ugh, no offence Lydia, but you're a bit heavier, than you look," said Zekk,

Lydia let out a gasp of disbelief and lightly smacked Zekk on the back of the head, "rule number one when talking to women, don't mention their weight! Always say they're as light as a feather, even if they're a hippo!"

"Uh…fine, you're actually as light as a feather," he tried,

"That's better, now, onto finding sexy and the frog guy," cheered the mercenary,

"Why do you always call him that?" asked Zekk as he continued walking them towards the next hole,

"Hmm?"

"Thane, why do you always call him sexy?"

"Because he's sexy," answered Lydia as though it were totally obvious, "duh"

If his face could be seen, Lydia would have noticed that Zekk had an eyebrow raised.

"Let me explain," she said with a sigh, "Thane, as you like to call him, has a certain cold confidence about him and he dresses in a leather coat. I, like many women, love bad boys. Thane, is a bad boy, thus, I call him sexy."

"So, do girls always go for that?" asked Zekk as they neared the next hole,

"Eh, not all girls, just quite a few," replied Lydia, "some girls go for the sweet sensitive type, don't know what that's all about. I prefer someone who can throw down in a fight."

"hmm"

"Hey, don't worry about it," assured Lydia, "you lived this long didn't you? That means, you're either really lucky or really skilled."

"Or I just happen to have skilled people around me," muttered Zekk,

"Hey, give yourself some credit. You're on this planet aren't you?"

"Yeah"

"Then those hunter assholes must have seen something awesome about you, otherwise you'd still be back on Omega,"

"Thanks…I think"

"No problem, now, let's keep searching for my sexy,"

"I wonder if Thane ever gets bothered that you-"

"Zekk!"

Wrex and A'lez heard a yell and immediately whipped around to see Zekk crumpled up on the ground and Lydia being held up high in the air by what looked like nothing. But by now, they all knew better than that, and their beliefs were confirmed when a tall menacing figure suddenly appeared out of pure light; clutching the human female in its large hand.

The Krogan battle master recognized this hunter as the one with spiked armor that had attacked them in the drilling station's generator room. It turned its masked head towards them, its dark empty eyes daring them to make a move.

A'lez raised her side arm to answer it's challenge, but the hunter moved quickly, leaping away in an impossibly far and high. As it soared through the air, A'lez opened fire with her pistol.

The continuous cracks of the weapon, seemed to be the only thing working as the hunter showed no signs of injury. When it landed at the edge of the rocks, A'lez raised her weapon to fire again.

The hunter roared challengingly then leapt off the edge and onto the ground below. It then took off in a sprint, dragging a cursing Lydia in its hands into the jungle.

"Damn!" cursed Wrex, as the hunter disappeared into the foliage,

A'lez quickly moved to Zekk's side to see if the young Quarian was still breathing. As she did, Wrex noticed a small patch of luminescent glowing green liquid on the ground, he curiously stuck two fingers into the substance and brought it up to his nose and took a large whiff.

"Zekk, you still with us kid?"

Zekk groaned in pain, "Lydia, where's-"

"It took her," answered A'lez with a shake of her head, "into the jungle"

"No!" cried Zekk as he painfully pushed himself up, "we have to go after her!"

"Zekk hold on! You might be injured," protested A'lez as she tried to hold him back,

"I'm fine!" he snapped, brushing her off,

"Can you walk?" asked Wrex,

"I can kill!" with that said, Zekk went storming down the rocks after the hunter and Lydia,

"Shouldn't we-"

"He can handle it," interrupted Wrex, "besides, they have one of ours, are you saying we should just let them have her?"

"No, of course not," A'lez said immediately, "but, shouldn't we be smart about this?"

"Tired, that, didn't work," replied Wrex as he began to jog after Zekk, "come on, we won't have another chance like this!"

"What about Thane and Morroth?" called A'lez as the Krogan went further,

"I'm sure they're fine!"

With an exasperated sigh, A'lez went running after her two companions. Safer to be with them, chasing the hunter, than it was standing there alone.

The group made quick time climbing down the rocks, the part that they used was a lot less steeper than the ninety degree climb they had taken coming up the other day. Unsurprisingly, the effort was spearheaded by Zekk; Lydia had been the closest to the young Quarian out of the entire group. She'd been something of an older sister to him and was always the first to engage in conversation with the Quarian. Now that she had suddenly been kidnapped, Zekk was in overdrive to get her back.

When they reached the edge of the jungle, Wrex had to hold him back from rushing in blindly and getting lost within the greenery.

"Hold it kid, if you're gonna go on a rampage, you need to know which way to go," said the Krogan,

"But-"

"Just give me a second, you'll have your chance," assured Wrex,

The Krogan knelt down on the jungle floor and took in a large whiff as his reptilian eyes scanned the multitude of colors before them.

"What are you looking for?" asked A'lez,

"A trail," replied Wrex, and then he found what he was looking for, "there"

He pointed out a patch of glowing green liquid, like the one he'd found on the rocks.

"What is it?" asked Zekk as he got closer to inspect,

"Our trail.," answered Wrex, "mighty kind of it to have bio-luminescent blood, looks like you hit it after all"

"Yeah, I guess I did," said A'lez, though she was clearly skeptical as to whether she had indeed managed to land a shot.

"Let's get going, remember, look for the glowing green crap,"

The two nodded and together they stormed back into the jungle they had so desperately wanted to leave. Wrex took point, being the one with the best olfactory senses to sniff out the trail of blood the hunter was leaving for them.

The three trudged through the familiar dense greenery of the jungle, pushing through bushes, ducking under branches, wading through tall grass, and swatting at bugs.

As they continued on, Wrex noticed something rather strange about the blood trail that they'd been following. The drops of blood seemed to consistently be in plain view, always on a clear branch or rock, always somewhere they couldn't miss it. Wrex didn't think that hunters of such caliber, would make such a rookie mistake as leaving a clear trail.

Before he could voice his concern, Zekk yelled, "Hey look!"

Wrex looked where the young Quarian was pointing, a large clearing filled with tall grass. What was most noticeable was what was in the tall grass, ruins. Large, stone, ruins.

"Well that's new," he muttered,

"You think that's where they're keeping Lydia?" asked A'lez,

"Definitely,"

"Then let's go," said the Asari,

The ruins were like maze, twelve foot tall walls made of pure stone, winding around in long halls that forked off in all sorts of directions. Occasionally there would be tall stone pillars with various images carved into them, many of which looked like strange bug looking creatures.

Then they came to the center of the ruins.

The center consisted of a wide open space where the ground was completely tiled with stone. In addition there were multiple layers of pillars, lined up in the shape of a circle so that if you looked down from above you might see a target. But at the very center of the center, was what could only be described as a miniature pyramid, but with a flat top.

On that flat top, lay the woman they'd been looking for.

"Lydia!" Zekk dashed forward,

"Wait!" called Wrex, but it was too late, the Quarian was already by her side. Wrex groaned and jogged over with A'lez to join them.

"Lydia! Wake up!"

"Is she alive?" asked A'lez,

"Fuck you" mumbled Lydia as she came to,

"She's fine," said Wrex with a small chuckle,

"Ugh, anyone get the license plate of that frigate that blindsided me?" she groaned as she sat up, "what happened?"

"One of those hunter's grabbed you and dragged you off into these ruins," explained Zekk, "then we came here to find you"

"Oh, okay…then how come I'm not dead?"

"Cause we just walked into a trap," answered Wrex, A'lez and Zekk looked at him with alarm.

"Oh, that makes sense," Lydia said nonchalantly,

Just then, the group suddenly heard the sound of stone rubbing against stone. What they heard was the sound of doors being closed, blocking off any exit from the maze. Then there was a malice filled roar that broke through the sky, the group looked up to see the same hunter that had kidnapped Lydia standing high on a pillar.

( #*%&)(#*&%) #*(&%()*&%) #(*&%)#( *&%)(#&*% )&*%) #&*(%)

I'm coming to you Irikah

The White Hunter drew back his serrated wrist blades and Thane waited for his first glimpse of the sea along with his beloved wife.

Then he was falling, then a sharp pain lanced up his shoulder as he felt himself land on something hard. Was he dead? No, he heard the growls of the hunter that had held his life in its hands. Thane opened his eyes to seem dust in the air and a staggered White Hunter, in addition Thane realized that his ears were ringing. Judging from his surroundings, that was most likely due to some explosion.

The assassin felt a hand grasp his shoulder, then pull him to his feet. His blurry vision revealed to him the thin face of Morroth, the Salarian STG member who had apparently unconscious and not dead.

"Thane, are you alright?" he heard the Salarian ask, though it sounded as though he were far away, "apologies that I could not help earlier, was-"

A loud yet muffled roar interrupted the commando, both Thane and Morroth whipped around to see the White Hunter angrily glaring at them through its mask.

Morroth quickly raised his peculiar looking sidearm and fired a single shot. The projectile however, did not look like a bullet and it was much slower. Too slow to hit the White Hunter as he quickly threw back his shoulder and avoided the projectile, which proceeded to stick to the pillar behind him.

It remained stuck just long enough for Thane to see that it was some sort of dark blue orb, a moment later, the orb combusted like a miniature grenade.

The White Hunter unexpectedly jumped a bit in surprise, then quickly cloaked itself and vanished into the forest of stone pillars.

"Can you walk?" asked Morroth,

"Yes," replied Thane in a ragged voice,

"Move!" the Salarian grabbed the assassin by the coat and dragged him along, just barely avoiding an incoming plasma bolt, "we have to get out of here!"

"To the exit!" pointed Thane, as he ran towards the tunnel, Morroth loaded another clip into his pistol.

Realizing that he could not hope to tag the hunter while it was cloaked, the commando did the next best thing. He aimed at the pillars that were undoubtedly surrounding the hunter and fired upon them. Cohesive little blue orbs stuck to the natural rock sculptures and exploded, causing their foundation to crumble.

He heard an angry roar come out from the pillars as they began to fall like giant stone trees.

"Come on!" called Thane, who was already at the entrance of their escape tunnel.

Morroth broke into a full sprint towards the exit, those falling pillars would keep the hunter busy but it he doubted that it would completely stop something as skilled as it.

As if to prove him right, the hunter let loose another angry roar. Morroth glanced back at the pile of collapsed rock to see the White Hunter suddenly burst out of the rubble. It's shoulder cannon came to life and fired a quick blast of plasma.

Morroth ducked and felt the ball of fire whip over his head and impact the tunnel ceiling above Thane.

Bastard! He wasn't trying to kill them! He was trying to prevent them from escaping! Morroth fired a quick but expertly aimed shot at the hunter, if only to make it hesitate a moment longer. The orb landed on the rubble at the hunter's feet.

It quickly noticed the tiny explosive and leapt from the pile, fortunately for the prey, not all of the pillars had finished collapsing. One such pillar chose just that moment to take its fall, right in the hunter's way.

"that should slow it down," whispered Morroth as he slapped in a new clip and began to run again.

Just as Morroth began to near the tunnel, Thane yelled "look out!"

The commando felt a wave of heat pass by him followed by a flash of blue, another bolt struck the ceiling of the escape tunnel but the rock thankfully held strong. Morroth whipped around to see just how close the hunter had managed to get.

He soon wished he hadn't, for as soon as he turned, he found the hunter right on top of him causing him to smash into the ground. His slender finger accidently pulled the trigger of his pistol twice, sending two blue orbs directly above Thane onto the tunnel ceiling.

The already damaged foundation of the tunnel finally broke as twin explosions shattered whatever stability it still had left.

On top of that, the hunter smacked Morroth's pistol out of his hand.

The commando heard the unmistakable sound of rock breaking, then suddenly he was up in the air with his lungs gasping for air. Then he was flying, then there was pain as he hit something hard then fell back to the cold stone ground.

Morroth stumbled to his feet and found that the hard thing he'd been thrown against, was actually the rubble that was now blocking what had once been his escape route. Now, he was trapped.

He turned back to the hunter who uttered a challenging roar.

"Fine," whispered Morroth, "if that's the way it's going to be"

The commando activated his Omni-blade, the hunter in turn unsheathed its serrated wrist blades.

The hunter charged first, eager to gain another trophy. Morroth stood his ground, the hunter swung down with his wrist blades, the commando quickly parried the attack then retaliated with a quick jab aimed at the alien's gut.

But the hunter's pale hand shot out and grabbed Morroth by the wrist and stopped the blade in its tracks. It then swung horizontally at the Salarian with its wrist blades in an attempt to cut off his horned head. But Morroth ducked under, then swung a bare knuckled fist at the hunter's head.

His attack met with success, and pain.

The commando let out a loud yelp of pain, the hunter completely ignored the blow, then grabbed Morroth and lifted him high over its head. The White Hunter then tossed the Salarian across the cave floor and into one of the shallow puddles.

Morroth spat out some of the water and rose back to his feet and saw the White Hunter confidently walking towards him at a nearly insulting speed.

Unexpectedly, the commando charged headfirst at the hunter.

Morroth slashed at the hunter, but he easily dodged just by stepping back a little, Morroth slashed at him again and the hunter repeated his dodge. With a growl, the commando thrust his omni-blade at his opponent.

Up came the hunter's weapon, the Salarian's attack was stopped dead as his own blade was caught between the White Hunter's wrist blades. Using the moment of shock to its advantage, the hunter pushed Morroth's weaponized hand out of the way. It then grabbed Morroth by the shoulder with its one free hand, then pulled the Salarian in while shoving its knee into Morroth's stomach.

The commando let out a hoarse cough; then the hunter shoved its knee into his stomach again, and again, and again.

It finally released him, only to catch the Salarian in the face with a vicious left hook. Morroth tumbled to the ground, barely clinging to consciousness.

This wasn't going to work, he needed to be smart about this, a frontal assault was clearly suicide. Fortunately, the hunter was approaching him again with that confident walk of his.

Morroth got back to his feet and activated his own invisibility cloak.

When its prey suddenly disappeared, the White Hunter was taken a back for a moment. To its eyes, the Salarian was now completely invisible, not even its heat sensing mask could pick it up. The White Hunter pondered using its mask to detect technological fields, that would surely unveil his quarry.

But no, that would be too easy. He wanted a challenge.

And so he stood, waiting, listening.

This Salarian may have been trained in stealth, fought using stealth, and killed using stealth. But the White Hunter had been born to wield the art, it had spent every moment of its existence perfecting the art of the hunt, of waiting patiently, moving quietly until the right moment to strike.

By the time it had become fully mature, the quiet steps of other were nothing more than maddeningly loud.

The White Hunter suddenly swung around back handed solid air.

Air became Morroth, now lying on his back. The Salarian groaned but amazingly stood back up, albeit quite staggered.

The White Hunter simply struck him back down, this time when the commando attempted to stand back up, the hunter kicked him in the face.

Morroth fell back down but still had enough strength to try and crawl away. But as he began to rise, the White Hunter struck out with his wrist blades and severed the commando's right Achilles tendon. Morroth let out a yelp of pain and fell back to his knees.

The White Hunter spun the crippled Salarian around and struck him with a powerful right hook. Morroth fell, but the hunter caught him and pulled him back up then struck him again. The commando once again fell and once again the hunter prevented him from falling entirely only to strike again.

The prey lashed out wildly with its odd weapon, the hunter easily grabbed hold of the arm, then smashed its fist down upon where the Salarian's elbow was. A sickening crack, followed by a pained yell was enough to tell the hunter that he'd broken the arm.

Defenseless, the Salarian simply sat on his knees, in too much pain to do anything.

The White Hunter grabbed his prey by the throat, then drove its wrist blades into the quarry's stomach. Morroth coughed up blood as the blades dug deep.

The hunter reached into the Salarian's bloody innards and grasped it prize. With a mighty heave, it tore out a long white rod, then pulled it out more and more.

Morroth had just enough life to see his own spinal column come out of his body, until the White Hunter tore it all the way to the base of his neck, where with one final pull, Morroth's entire head came off his body in a bloody spray of gore.

The White Hunter roared with victory, one collected five more to go

(*( &)(#*%&)(*#%&) *(&%)*&#%) *&%)&# %)&%) #*&%)*#%&)#%&*)

The Spiked Hunter stared down at its prey, more importantly it stared down at four trophies that would soon hang proudly in his part of the ship.

Wrex turned to Lydia and tossed her the submachine gun she'd dropped while being kidnapped, "can you fight?"

"Can an Asari stripper last four hours in bed?" Lydia flicked off the safety and stood,

"Don't know but I'll take that as a yes," replied Wrex,

Four guns were raised towards the air and pointed at the hunter, but strangely the hunter did not yet move.

"Why isn't it moving?" asked A'lez

"It must know we're low on ammo," whispered Wrex, "you three hold fire for a moment, but don't lower your guns"

They did as instructed, without warning, Wrex's shotgun suddenly boomed. The hunter quickly ducked and avoided tacking a slug to the shoulder. It growled furiously and brought its shoulder cannon up along with the oh so familiar red laser sights.

"Scatter!"

The group quickly broke off into different directions just as the hunter fired its cannon. A'lez was the first to retaliate, calling upon her powerful biotics she lifted a piece of shattered tile and flung it at the hunter.

The Spiked Hunter nimbly dodged the incoming debris by jumping to an adjacent pillar. A'lez picked up another chunk of tile and sent it at the hunter; the hunter's shoulder cannon fired and blasted the debris into harmless little pieces.

The Spiked Hunter roared, then cloaked itself with light.

"Hold your fire until you've got a clear target," ordered Wrex, "we don't want to waste any ammo!"

"Watch for that red laser," added A'lez, "don't let it get a lock on you!"

As soon as the spectre had thrown out her warning, the same red laser suddenly appeared on her chest. Without hesitation, the asari rolled aside, letting the blast strike the tile.

Once again calling on her biotics, she lifted the shattered pieces of tile and tossed them at the origin of the shot. The hunter simply jumped to another pillar, then aimed its cannon at the Krogan, who wisely began to beat a retreat as plasma bolts started raining down on it.

The hunter's head suddenly snapped back as something impacted the side of its mask, it quickly turned to the source, Zekk who was taking careful shots at the hunter with his submachine gun.

In response the Spiked Hunter unbuckled a small disk from his belt, with a press of a button that disk suddenly grew multiple razor sharp curved blades.

"Uh oh," muttered the Quarian,

The hunter flung the shuriken at Zekk, as the bladed disk came at the young Quarian he quickly fell the ground allowing the weapon to miss him by centimeters.

Unfortunately, the disk came flying back into the hand of its owner allowing the hunter to toss it again.

"Oh crap!" yelled Zekk as he ran from the bladed terror,

The shuriken came at him and he rolled to the left, it went back to the hunter and was sent out after him again. This time, he couldn't dodge. Thankfully a biotic barrier was erected in front of him just in time.

Wrex's shotgun boomed as it sent heavy slugs at the hunter.

"Come on! That all you got!" bellowed the battle master,

The Spiked Hunter took aim and tossed its shuriken while simultaneously firing its cannon at Zekk. The bladed disk flew through the air and sliced Wrex's weapon in half, rendering it completely useless.

"Damn!" cursed the Krogan,

"Hey! Catch!" "A'lez used her biotics to lift a hefty piece of rubble and sent it after the Spiked Hunter. This time it was too distracted and took a solid blow, knocking it off the pillar and onto the ground. The hunter quickly jumped back on its feet but was abruptly tackled by charging Krogan.

"Raaah!" roared Wrex as he carried the Spiked Hunter into a pillar. The battle master attempted to follow up with a good old Krogan head butt, but the hunter quickly slipped under and escaped his grasp.

The hunter unsheathe its wrist blades and jumped at Wrex with the intent to finish him off quickly but was knocked out of its trajectory by a powerful biotic shockwave that sent it rolling across the ground instead.

"Gotch ya!" cried Lydia as she placed a gun to the prone hunter's head. But quicker then she could react, the hunter ripped the gun out of her hands, tossed it away, and picked her up by the ankle.

"Hey! Let go of me!" she demanded,

Wrex uttered a roar and charged head first, acting quickly the hunter tossed the human at the Krogan. Wrex was forced abandon his charge to stop and catch Lydia, giving the hunter ample opportunity cloak itself and disappear.

"Where'd it go!?" asked Zekk as he waved his gun around, he suddenly felt something bump into his back. He quickly whipped around only to see that it was A'lez,

"hey, don't break the formation!" she scolded,

"Huh?"

"Haven't you ever heard of back to back?!"

"Oh, right! Sorry," he apologized before resuming the formation, Wrex soon joined them,

"Anyone one see it?"

"No, it could be anywhere though, just watch out for any signs of-"

A loud thump sounded in the middle of them, in the next moment all of them, save Wrex, had been scattered like rag dolls. Wrex had whipped around just in time to block the incoming blow.

But the hunter followed up with a right hook, Wrex raised his arm to block, but felt a huge jab of pain. He looked to see that at the last moment, the hunter had unsheathed its wrist blades, which were now stuck in Wrex's forearm.

"Is that the best you got!" he growled, pulling in the hunter he began to mercilessly rain a flurry of heavy blows. The hunter was so caught off guard it had no chance to mount a defense and simply stood there being pummeled by an angry Krogan.

However, the pain soon snapped it out of its shock and it caught Wrex's fist in its hand. The Krogan growled in irritation s the hunter slowly pushed him back.

"Hey!"

Both combatants turned to see Lydia limply leaning against a pillar with her grenade launcher aimed at them. Wrex was the first to react, quickly separating himself from the hunter's blades and diving away.

"Eat this!" Lydia fired two consecutive shots, twin explosions engulfed the hunter, "boom bitch!"

"Holy shit, we killed it!" yelled Zekk,

Wrex struggled to his feet, nothing came out from the smoke. It seemed that they really had killed it.

"Well," smiled A'lez, "that's one down, two more to go"

Wrex nodded, "nice work Lydia"

"No thanks necessary," cheered the mercenary, "just leave it all to me and my boom gun!"

The celebration would have continued, if a familiar roar didn't suddenly split through the air. The group whirled around towards the cloud of smoke which had finally begun to dissipate.

What they saw dropped all of their jaws.

The Spiked Predator stood there, unharmed, holding his hands out in a very familiar fashion. But even more astonishing was the ghostly blue glow surrounding it and the shimmering semi-circle protecting it.

A biotic barrier

The hunters had biotics

Lydia summarized all their feelings into three simple words, "fuck my life"

The hunter dropped its barrier and with all of the prey too shocked, no one did anything as it aimed its shoulder cannon.

But someone did react, someone did fire their weapon

A blue orb suddenly attached itself to the hunter's cannon, it promptly exploded, taking the gun with it as well as dazing the hunter.

Wrex was the first to grasp the situation, "Open fire!"

All four survivors raised their guns and shot a hail of bullets at the hunter. Dozens of blotches of green exploded out from the hunter's body, it staggered under the a hail of metal, roaring out as it attempted once last charge.

The survivors kept firing

The hunter kept charging

Then, it fell, just one foot away from their position. This time, it truly was dead.

Zekk dropped to his knees, "Oh, let's never do that again"

The rest of them turned to their savior, Thane, limping towards them with a pistol in hand.

"Sexy!" Lydia tackled Thane in a bear hug,

"Ow," he groaned,

"Oh sorry,"

"Well, you look like you've been to hell and back," commented A'lez,

"Good to see you," Wrex said, giving the drell a painful pat on the back, "that's Morroth's gun, he with you?"

Thane shook his head, "no"

Wrex sighed, "damn, but at least your alive and hey, we finally got one of them."

The four turned to the hunter's dead body, by now the sun had begun to set and the blood could real show of its unique green glow. Zekk walked over to the body, aimed his submachine gun and pulled the trigger, placing a single bullet in the back of its head.

"Just to be sure," he explained,

"Come on," called Wrex to the Quarian, "let's get out of here before another one shows up, we're in no condition to take on another one"

"Coming, just give me a-ulp!" Zekk was suddenly lifted a foot into the air by an invisible hand,

The hand revealed itself, Thane's eyes widened, it was the White Hunter and clipped to its belt was the bloodied head of Morroth.

The White Hunter's wrist blades shot out and it drew them back to end the young Quarian's life. Then there was a flash of blue as A'lez smashed into the hunter with a biotic charge that freed Zekk and sent the hunter stumbling backwards.

"I am so tired of these damn assholes!" she growled, then turned back to the group, "What are you waiting for? Run!"

The group did just that, they sprinted for the maze. But when A'lez attempted to follow, a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and tossed her onto her back.

"How'd you get in?!" asked Wrex,

"This way!" pointed Thane, the Drell led them through the maze and to a hole in the wall that he'd created using Morroth's pistol.

A'lez however was still in the ruins with the White Hunter who was currently towering above her. The hunter reached down and grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up to eye level.

The spectre could feel her anger build, she was so tired of the damn planet. Turning her rage into energy, she called upon her biotics again and slammed the hunter with all her power. The White Hunter was tossed twenty feet across the ground, freeing A'lez in the process.

"I'm going to tear you apart!" she growled,

The White Hunter rose to his feet and pounded his chest as if to say, challenge the spectre.

A'lez knew she had to be careful, just by looking she could tell this hunter was much more experienced than the one that had just become deceased. As an asari, her biotics were some of the best in the galaxy, but that didn't mean she was immune to the side effects they produced. She had to make sure not to overdo it.

Gathering her biotic powers, A'lez ripped a pair of tiles from the flooring and flung both of them at the hunter. The first one the White Hunter dodged under, the next one it caught in both hands and flung it back.

A'lez caught the return missile, then used her power to break it in half. She sent the first piece spinning then shot it at the hunter, hoping the spin would prevent it being caught.

Her hopes proved right, the hunter didn't catch the piece of stone, he punched right through it, shattering it to pieces. The spectre hastily tossed the next missile, the White Hunter back handed it as well; the rock seemed to just explode upon contact.

"Alright, new plan" decided A'lez,

The asari surrounded herself with a blue aura and shot her hands out towards the approaching hunter. A massive wave of biotic force slammed into the albino, but it dug its heels into the ground and broke through the attack.

The spectre's eyes widened, never before had she seen someone whether a biotic attack on sheer brute force alone, building up another charge she shoved all her might into another biotic slam.

Again a massive blue wave of power crashed into the White Hunter, but once again the hunter stood his ground. At first it seemed like the hunter would be blown away this time, the hunter began to growl, then one foot came forward, then another, each quicker than the first. Until finally, the wave broke and the White Hunter continued forward.

By now, A'lez was beginning to feel the effects of using so much biotic power in such a small amount of time. A small buzz in her ear warned her of going overboard, but she ignored it.

Surrounding herself with the blue aura again, she reached out with her hand and attempted to place a biotic stasis field around the hunter. It would make it impervious to harm but would also stop it for a brief moment.

The blue glow began to surrounded the hunter like a layer of luminescent water and the hunter's movements began to slow. But that was the problem, the hunter's movements weren't supposed to slow, they were supposed to stop entirely! He was fighting the stasis!

With a jerk of its body, the White Hunter broke from the stasis field and continued forward.

A'lez growled with frustration.

She shot out her hand one more time and summoned a biotic shockwave to travel along the ground. Multiple explosive biotic impacts raced towards the hunter, but it simply side stepped and continued forward.

The spectre shot another shockwave and the hunter avoided it again.

By now, the buzz in A'lez's ear had turned into a small headache.

"Damn" she cursed, but she wasn't about to give up.

For one last time, she surrounded herself with the biotic aura. One moment she was there, the next she was smashing into the hunter's chest with a biotic charge.

The White Hunter stumbled back, staggered by the blow. A'lez saw her chance, she charged again, sending it reeling back.

"Yeah! Not so tough now are you!"

She smashed into it again and again it stumbled back. By now it was directly in front of a pillar, if she could just hit it one more time, A'lez could bring that pillar down on top of it.

She charged one last time, but this time, the hunter saw it coming. He reached his right hand across his waist in waiting, when the asari charged forward, he struck out with a powerful backhand.

A'lez was knocked right out of her biotic charge and onto her back, completely unaware of what had just happened.

Then, she was surrounded by a blue field and lifted up into the air. But it wasn't her biotics that were lifting her, she looked towards the hunter and saw it surrounded by its own biotic field. But unlike her deep blue aura, it was surrounded by a distinctly pale blue one.

Now it was using that pale blue aura to lift her into the air. With a small forward flick of its wrist, A'lez was suddenly jerked forward, into a pair of waiting blades.

A'lez felt pain at first, but as she stared into those void like eyes of the hunter, she slowly felt herself go numb. Blood began to fill her throat, she let it roll down her lips.

Gradually, the darkness began to come, the Goddess would soon take her. The last thing she'd see, were those dark pit like eye and that horrible emotionless mask.

( *(&%() *#&%) (#*&% ()#&*)(#*%&) #(*&%)( #*&%) (#)

When the blue prey's heart finally stopped, the White Hunter slipped her off his blades and let the body fall to the ground.

He would collect the skull later, right now, there was something more important to attend to.

Laying not far, in a pool of green was his hunt brother.

The White Hunter let out a small mournful groan as he walked over to his fallen kin. He respectfully flipped his brother's body onto its back and placed a single hand upon the Spiked Hunter's masked face.

The White Hunter dipped his head low and touched his own forehead to his brother's and let out a small grief filled purr.

His brother could not have asked for a better death, he had died hunting as they all would have asked to die. But still, that did not stave off the sting in the White Hunter's heart.

Looking to the night sky, the White Hunter roared out to the heavens. He would avenge his fallen brother, taking one last remorseful moment, the White Hunter reached down and took his brother's dagger off from his brother's belt.

Now he would have something to always remember his brother by.

He would come back for the body when this hunt was done, the White Hunter stomped over to his most recent kill. Using his brother's dagger, he sliced through the Asari's neck and ripped off the head.

This hunt was now personal


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Endgame

Wrex and the tattered survivors of this deadly game of cat and mouse rushed through the all too familiar jungle at an all too familiar pace.

It was true, by now running through the thick foliage of the planet had become ingrained into their life despite the short amount of time they'd actually spent on the planet itself, and so had being chased by those damned hunters.

"Don't stop for anything!" bellowed Wrex as he led them through the greenery,

"Wait, where's A'lez?" asked Zekk, who was supporting Lydia.

Despite what he'd said earlier, Wrex stopped the group and whipped around to find that the Asari Spectre was indeed missing from their group.

A moment later, the familiar roar of the hunters broke through the darkening sky, answering for them their question.

"Damn!" growled Wrex, but the Krogan shook away the growing grief and tried to remain strong, "come on let's keep moving"

The group followed without question, but Lydia did voice their concerns as they went, "Where are we going?"

"Where are we always going? Away from here," replied Wrex,

"What happened to fighting back?" asked the mercenary,

"We just killed that thing's brother, if I know warriors of honor, it's going to be pissed as hell" explained the Krogan through huffs of breath, "and right now, we're not exactly in shape to take on another one, not to mention the fact that there's also another one out there somewhere."

"We need a plan then," said Thane as he struggled to keep up with his injuries hampering him,

"Yeah, but the thing is that we've got crap weapons, little ammo, and we're all exhausted and injured," said Wrex, "so I'm not exactly sure how we're going to kill two more of those hunters, we barely managed to kill one at full strength."

Thane nodded, knowing that the Battle master spoke the truth. Aside from a few small arms and their hands, they had very few ways of combating the hunters. Perhaps Wrex's biotics could be utilized, but he doubted that it would be their salvation.

No, they needed to kill the hunters some other way.

As the assassin formulated and ran, he began to think, how had the hunters so effectively defeated a band of well-armed and highly dangerous group of individuals such as them. It was true, they had technology that far surpassed their own, but from Thane's own experience their technology was utilized for hunting more than actual combat.

Wrist blades, knives, spears, active camouflage, the only weapon that seemed truly above their own was the shoulder cannons they all had and Thane suspected those could be made to be more powerful if needed.

No, something else had allowed them to eradicate the now dead members of their group. Training was surely a part of it but there had to be something else, even the best trained could falter against numbers.

The Terrain! Thane's eyes widened when he realized what the hunter's greatest weapon was in fact the jungle itself. They had effectively used their knowledge of the jungle's terrain to their advantage.

That meant that their only home of surviving would be to do the same thing,

But how?

Before Thane could find out, an ominous glow in the tree line caught his attention.

The rest of the group seemed to notice as well, for they too stopped their hurried steps. Without the sound of whipping wind in his ears, Thane could make out the sound of the crackling of a fire, it must have been a fairly large one to create such a bright light this deep into the jungle.

The group exchanged glances and began to move towards the light.

They cautiously edged forward, eventually they came close enough to make out a large clearing free of vegetation but far from barren. The fire was placed in the middle of the clearing, but what really caught the attention of the group was what was around the fire.

Dozens of dry dead trees, lacking any greenery, massive tall pikes scattered randomly and stuck into the ground to point up into the sky. Shallow muddy puddles filled to the brim with severed limbs and bloody bones.

Bodies, dozens of them, strung up upon the dead trees like carcass's left to bleed out or stuck up upon the pikes as though a message to whomever might see them. Many of the bodies were skinned and some of them were missing their heads, next to the fire they gazed upon a sickening sight. A piles of skins that had been stripped off their owners and next to it a pile of bones left out to dry. They ranged from Krogan and Turian to Human and Batarian, some looked quite fresh.

Wrex took the first steps out of the foliage and into what was clearly the Hunter's camp. His heavy footsteps were absorbed into a silent trod by the damp dirt beneath him. He made a quick scan of the surrounding area, making sure to keep his pistol up in case any of the hunters should be hiding.

When he was sure it was clear and experimentally walked deeper into the camp, he signaled the others to follow. Slowly, the rest of the group entered as well, all keeping their weapons up and ready, even though no hunters seemed to be around, they had too recently brushed with death to let their guard down.

As they walked further in, they passed the strung up skinless bodies of victims both recent and of long ago. Wrex noted a headless Krogan body, skinned and hanging upside down by its ankles from the branch of a dead tree.

He noted the red armor below the body and instantly knew who it was, Gornol. He took a small moment to mourn his fellow Krogan, then continued on.

"So this is where they drag us after they've killed us," whispered Lydia, Zekk did not respond, he was too busy attempting to keep himself from throwing up.

It wasn't so much the sight of the bodies, but the sheer amount of them that unnerved him. He had once read a human book of a ruler of what they called their medieval times. A man so terrible, he was the inspiration for various myths of monsters that feasted upon human flesh. Historically, the myths were not too far off from the actual thing.

One particular passage reminded Zekk of his situation right now. When the ruler's enemies had come to attack him, they first passed through a forest of pikes on top of which they found their comrades impaled upon.

It was known as the Forest of Death.

Zekk felt that he was experiencing exactly what those men had felt upon entering that forest. Dread, despair, disgust, it was more than anyone should have had to bear.

Thane walked through with a disturbingly calm demeanor, but that only held his revulsion. But his many years of training allowed him not to yield to his fleshly feelings, so he continued on without a flinch or grimince.

Just when the entire group reached the center of the camp, near the fire, Zekk suddenly cried out, "hey, look!"

They did and did not believe their eyes.

"Fuck, am I hallucinating?" asked Lydia,

"I can hardly believe it myself," Thane replied,

"Son of a bitch," chuckled Wrex,

Right there, lying on the very other end of the camp. Was an honest to god, real life, shuttle. As in an actual, space worthy, flyable shuttle that could potentially be their way off the planet, most of the group had to shake themselves then look again to make sure their minds were not playing some sort of trick on them.

The group hurried themselves over to their newly found salvation and reached out to touch in order to test if it was real, in Lydia's case she hugged and kissed the vehicle.

"Mwah, mwah, oh there is a god!" she whooped,

Wrex pulled open the shuttle door and allowed the eager Zekk to begin his assessment of their new escape. Immediately he went to the cockpit to began a hardware and systems check. He used his gloved hand to wipe off the thick layers of dust and immediately started his diagnostic by powering up his omni-tool to perform a scan.

"Well, how's it look in there kid?" asked Wrex from outside, "come on, don't leave us in suspense, if it doesn't work just tell us quick so we don't get too hopeful."

"Just a minute," he replied, after a few more moments he exited the shuttle and provided his assessment, "it looks like all the tech is functional, it hasn't been used for a while but this thing could definitely get us into space."

Wrex nodded, satisfied with the assessment. Zekk then walked over to the front of the shuttle and began scanning with his Omni-tool again, "I've just got to check the exterior for any damage and then we can see if this thing will fire up."

Wrex was about to respond when his tongue suddenly sank into his throat as he watched a familiar red laser settle upon Zekk's unprotected backside.

"No!" he bellowed and quickly threw himself in front of the Quarian,

The unseen hunter fired its shoulder cannon and let loose a hot blue bolt of plasma at the two. The Krogan called upon its biotic powers and threw up a barrier to protect himself and the Quarian from disintegration.

The blue ball of fire hit the biotic barrier, heat washed over the two but left them unharmed. Zekk quickly whipped around and raised his submachine gun, at the side of the shuttle Thane and Lydia did similarly.

Out of the air, a small metal projectile exploded out towards the Drell and Mercenary. Said projectile suddenly broke apart and expanded, becoming a wide metal net to capture the two. Thane, seeing it coming, quickly threw up his own barrier and caught the incoming net.

The heavy weights on the capture device however, did not yield and the net still ended up covering the two, only delayed by Thane's efforts from cutting the pair into bite sized chunks.

With two of its quarry out of the picture, the hunter revealed itself. When its cloak came off, the hunter was already in the air, tomahawk raised high as it came down upon the Quarian and Krogan like a descending bird of prey.

The two moved with surprising speed, both stepping out of the way, moving to either side. The Hunter's tomahawk came down and slammed into the hood of the shuttle. The hunter immediately wrenched its weapon out, Zekk raised his submachine gun to fire but it was promptly pushed up high by the Hunter's tomahawk. With his weapon unaligned with the target and having very little hand to hand combat training, Zekk was completely defenseless.

The Hunter took advantage of that and delivered a strong kick to the Quarian's chest that sent him flying through the air and onto the ground twenty feet away.

The Bone Hunter then whipped around to deal with its Krogan quarry. Wrex was already facing his opponent, arming himself his with side arm and a thick tree branch that he'd found on the ground. He immediately raised his pistol to fire but found it knocked out of the way by the hunter's tomahawk, but knowing that that would be the hunter's first move, he quickly swung down with his tree branch in retaliation.

But the hunter was quick and raised his left arm in defense, using its metal bracer to block the incoming attack. Then it struck out with its right hand in a light punch to the Krogan's snout.

The strike caused Wrex to pause but it didn't stop him from charging the hunter head, he dipped his head down low and tossed it over his shoulder. But the move had little effect on it as the hunter simply tucked itself into a ball and rolled back to its feet.

Wrex tried his luck with his pistol again but as predicted the hunter batted it away, this time knocking it right out of Wrex's hand. The Krogan then struck with his tree branch and scored a heavy blow against the hunter's shoulder.

But the strike had little effect as the branch simply broke upon contact, Wrex looked at the useless stump in his hand, "Not good"

The Hunter lashed out with a wide swing, Wrex hopped back. The tomahawk skimmed across his armor, leaving a thin line across the chest piece.

The Hunter stepped forward and would have sunk the head of its tomahawk into Wrex's crested skull with its next move, if its weapon had not suddenly been enveloped by the net it had launched only a few minutes earlier.

Wrex turned to see Lydia and Thane, now free and ready to fight. Though its main weapon was impaired, the Bone Hunter simply activated its shoulder cannon and took aim.

Lydia and Thane quickly realized they'd only minorly inconvenienced the Bone Hunter and quickly scattered as it started raining blue fire upon them.

The Bone Hunter was suddenly knocked to the ground as Wrex rammed into its backside. Taking the momentary pause in the fighting, Wrex quickly grabbed his fallen sidearm and rushed over to Zekk who had by now managed to rise back up.

"Come on we have to run!" bellowed Wrex as he helped the Quarian,

"What about the shuttle?!" asked Zekk as they began to flee,

"We'll come back for it later!"

Lydia and Thane soon joined them in running back into the jungle.

"What now?" asked Lydia as they continued retreating, Wrex was about to respond when a blue plasma bolt soared overhead.

"Suggestions?" he threw out,

"This way," said Thane as he ran to the head of the group,

With no other ideas presented, the group followed the Drell back toward the facility they had recently left.

Thane had come up with a way to use the planet to their advantage. His plan was far-fetched and unlikely to work, but if it did, the playing field could be leveled immensely.

Using his amazing Drell memory, the assassin led the group back to the catacomb caves of the mountain. Finding an entrance back in was not hard, they simply went back to the one Thane had come out of.

Using the last of the explosives in Morroth's pistol, Thane cleared the rubble blocking the path, allowing them to enter into the mountain.

"Where are we going," asked Wrex,

"To find back up,"

The Bone Hunter entered the mountain soon after its prey had, tomahawk in hand it knelt down to the ground and used its heat sensitive vision to detect the foot prints the prey had left behind.

Meanwhile Thane led his companions through the maze of tunnels using his photographic memory of the paths he and Morroth had taken when they had been trapped down here. He only hoped that they would be able to find what they needed.

As they ran toward the exit of one tunnel, Lydia's wounds caught up with her and she stumbled. Thane stopped himself while Zekk and Wrex continued on. The Drell quickly grabbed Lydia by the arm and hauled her back up, allowing her to lean on him so that they might continue on.

"Hurry up!" called Wrex as he and Zekk began to enter the next chamber,

As they did, a small triangular object dropped down in front of them. The Quarian and Krogan took no notice until a high pitched countdown caught their attention. They both threw themselves back, but were still both caught in the shockwave.

Bright blue fire erupted and shook the caves, Zekk and Wrex were tossed back like ragdolls, both hitting the stony floor heavily.

"No!" cried out Lydia, she and the Drell hurried their pace forward. As soon as they entered the chamber, the Bone hunter dropped down from above, Tomahawk raised to split skulls.

Thane quickly pushed Lydia away, then side stepped the overhand strike. Thane readied himself, this Hunter was smaller and not as heavily built as the last one he fought and he had three allies with him, giving him much better chances.

The hunter swung its tomahawk down again, Thane threw back his foot and dodged the axe. The hunter swung down again and Thane threw back his other foot to dodge.

The Drell then performed a jumping 360 spinning kick that struck the Hunter right in its masked face. The hunter staggered slightly, but Thane followed up with another spin kick to its face.

With it slightly stunned, Thane gained the chance to call upon his biotic powers and send a powerful push of energy against his opponent. A blue wave slammed into the hunter and knocked it to the ground ten feet away.

But the hunter quickly recovered and rose back to its feet. Thane began to circle around the cavern, as he hoped the hunter began to follow his movements, not taking notice of the others on the floor.

Unfortunately, the assassin had not taken into account his own weariness. He closed his large dark eyes for a brief moment and when he opened them back up, the hunter was gone. Panic immediately hit him, panic was soon replaced with alarm as an invisible hand suddenly grabbed him by the throat and lifted him high into the air.

The hunter uncloaked itself, staring into Thane's eyes through its blank mask. It raised its tomahawk back for the killing blow.

It would have finished Thane off, had it not suddenly come under a hail of bullets. The shots were mostly wide but some struck it in the back and in the arm, though to it they were but minor annoyances, it was enough to make the hunter drop Thane and allow the Drell to escape.

It angrily whipped around to see Lydia, weakly holding her now empty submachine gun out at it. She looked ready to fall over at the slightest amount of force, but she smiled devilishly.

The Hunter stretched out its right hand and its bracer fired something. Lydia was too weak to dodge, the metal projectile sliced through the left side of her stomach. She let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground clutching her bleeding side.

The Bone Hutner, satisfied that the female had been dealt with, turned to find its original target.

Instead it was confronted with the head of a charging Krogan, Wrex slammed head first into the hunter and knocked it onto its back. He then attempted to body slam it, but the thing curled up its legs and caught the Krogan before it fell down upon it.

It then thrust out its legs and shoved the Krogan away, allowing the hunter to rise back up. Wrex quickly rolled back to his own feet and unholstered his pistol to open fire.

However, the hunter was nowhere to be seen, undoubtedly under the cover of its cloak again. The Krogan noticed a glimmer of movement and fired a quick double tap.

Suddenly, the hunter uncloaked itself right in front of him, tomahawk already in swing. The axe's blade sliced through the barrel of his pistol, rendering the weapon useless. Wrex discarded the pistol and struck out with a right hook.

His armored fist hit the hunter right up the chin, dazing it slightly. Wrex followed up with a left hook, but the hunter dodged under, hooked its tomahawk around Wrex's ankle and jerked back.

The Krogan lost his footing and landed heavily on his back, the Bone Hunter quickly placed a foot on his chest, preventing him from rising back up. It raised the tomahawk into the air, Wrex, too tired, could not do a thing.

The end was about to descend upon him, when the Hunter was suddenly thrown back by a powerful swipe. Wrex looked to see a grey skinned Yahg towering over his prone form, it roared loudly the noticed the Krogan at its feet. It raised both hands, Wrex's eye widened and quickly rolled out of the way just as the creature brought both fists down.

The Hunter roared as well, ironically it became the Korgan's savior when it suddenly jumped through the air at the much larger creature. It grasped onto the Yahg's shoulder and sunk the head of its tomahawk into the beat's thick hide.

It roared with pain and attempted to bat the hunter off of it. But the hunter wasn't having any of it and nimbly maneuvered himself onto the Yahg's back side, dragging the tomahawk through a bloody line as it did.

The Yahg roared in frustration as the Hunter mercilessly hacked away at it.

Wrex, who was still in a daze, quickly shook himself awake when a hand grabbed his own and helped him up. The Krogan looked up to see Thane,

"Yahg?" asked the Krogan,

"Not time to explain, go grab Zekk," ordered the assassin as he went to tend to Lydia,

Wrex did as he was told and slung the Quarian over his shoulder. The two then exited the cave, leaving the Yahg and the hunter to do battle.

The Yahg finally managed to grab the Hunter of its back then toss it to the ground twenty feet away. The hunter rolled to its feet, slightly dazed but still alert.

The Yahg charged to finish the hunter off, but the Bone Hunter reached to its belt and brought up a small disk. With a press of a button, the disk unsheathed a series of long curved blades. The Bone Hunter tossed the shuriken right at the charging Yahg. The weapon flew true, right into the beast's forehead, between its many eyes.

The weapon stuck, grinding into the Yahg's head and creating a fine mist of blood and bone matter until it finally came to a halt, still embedded in the Yahg's skull.

The Bone Hunter breathed a sigh of relief and retrieved his tomahawk and shuriken. Now to go after the prey, it was about to find the trail when a roar interrupted its tracking.

The Bone Hunter turned to see yet another Yahg coming out from the tunnel. The Hunter growled, it didn't have time for this. Then, another Yahg jumped down from a high tunnel, then another and another.

It appeared that it would have to make time for this. With a courageous roar, the hunter did what any of its kind would do.

It charged in head first.

( #( *)#&%()*&% ()#%&* )(#&*%) #(&&)% #&%) #)

"How is she?" asked Wrex as Thane applied the last of the medi-gel to Lydia's wound.

"She'll live," replied the Drell as he ripped a part of his coat's sleeve to dress the injury, "but she won't be standing up anytime soon. She will need proper care within the week, I've done all I can but…"

"Don't worry, she'll pull through," assured Wrex,

"What about him?" asked Thane, pointing to the unconscious Quarian slung on Wrex's shoulder,

"The kid? He's fine, be up and about in a couple minutes probably,"

Thane nodded, lifting up the female mercenary bridal style, "let's get moving,"

Wrex nodded and the pair began their trek back out of the mountain and to the hunter's camp where their salvation lay.

"How much time do you think those Yahg can buy us?" asked Wrex through huffs of breath,

"I'm not sure," answered Thane, "hopefully enough for us to reach the shuttle and start it up. At the very worst, ,all they'll do is hold the hunters back"

"And at best?"

"They'll manage to kill one of the hunters"

"Only one?" Wrex asked, Thane didn't respond and the Krogan nodded, "Yeah, hopefully"

( #(*&% ()*&% )(#*%&) (%&) #(&%) (#%&)%& #%& #)

The White Hunter ran swiftly through the catacombs of the mountain. After he had finished mourning his fallen brother, he had given chase to the fleeing prey.

As the Hunter tracked the prey, it began to notice that the prey had unintentionally been heading toward their camp. The White Hunter's other hunt brother had traveled back to the camp after gathering his trophy back at the drilling facility in order to clean it.

He had heard the sounds of battle, but when he had arrived at the camp, both the prey and his brother were nowhere to be found.

And so he tracked the prey as his brother had no doubt done, to the mountains where he had done battle with the Drell and a killed the Salarian.

He followed the residual heat left by the prey's footsteps, as he went on the foots steps began to glow brighter and brighter, signaling that they had walked these halls recently.

Eventually he saw a chamber and smelled the irony scent of blood in the air. There had been fighting recently.

He hurried his pace, perhaps his brother had not killed all of the prey and there was still a few more for him.

But when the White Hunter entered the chamber, he saw none of the prey. He only saw three bodies, two were what he recognized to be the hulking bodies of the Yahg they had dropped upon the planet not too long agao, the other, was his brother's.

The White Hunter quickly dashed to his fellow hunter's side, the Bone Hunter's chest heaved up and down frequently in great amounts as it gasped for air in what little life it still had. It noticed the White Hunter kneeling down beside it and let out a small brotherly purr.

The White Hunter returned the gesture and held out his hand.

The Bone Hunter grasped its brother's hand and squeezed; one last show of camaraderie between hunt brothers. But the Bone Hunter did not want to meet the Black Warrior, to meet death, without leaving his brother something to remember him by; something that the White Hunter could use to strike back at the prey, to hunt them down so as to avenge his death.

Weakly, he raised the hand that held his most prized weapon, his tomahawk and held it out to the White Hunter. His brother nodded in understanding and grasped the gift in his pale talons.

The Bone Hunter suddenly became rigid; his breaths began to become shallow and farer apart than before, until finally, he became still.

The White Hunter placed his brother's hand upon the ground and touch his own hand to his brother's masked face and let out a mournful roar.

But his mourning was interrupted by a loud primal roar. The White Hunter immediately whipped around to see a Yahg exiting a tunnel and entering the chamber.

Then another Yahg followed after, then another and another. Four in total, one beast alone was a great challenge, even for their kind, and his brother had defeated two.

The White Hunter rose to his feet, in one hand he clutched the bone tomahawk of his brother, in the other hand he held the dagger from the other.

With a roar of rage, the White Hunter charged forward.

The Yahg roared back and met his attack head own.

The Cave was soon painted with blood.

( *#%&()*&% (*%&)(*%& #%&)#(%*& ()%& )(#%&*)(&% #)&%* )#)

Thane and Wrex hurried their way through the jungle in hopes to get back to their salvation. The Drell, once again using his memory, led the way back to the camp as he had memorized.

Due to his injuries, the Drell opted to hand Lydia over to his Krogan companion. It was of little trouble for Wrex, his muscle bound body easily hefted both the Quarian and the Mercenary as though they weighed nothing.

This allowed Thane to concentrate on leading them back and prevented him from being a liability since he was weakened and most likely couldn't handle carrying Lydia such a far distance, light as she was.

Soon enough, they came upon the familiar glow that had first attracted them to the camp. They entered the camp itself, walked past the same strung up carcass's they had come by before and found the shuttle, still intact.

"uggggh,"

Wrex looked up to his shoulder and noticed that the Quarian was beginning to stir, luckily right on time.

The Krogan set the female mercenary up against the shuttle and placed the now awake Zekk onto his feet.

"You okay kid?" asked the Krogan,

The Quarian stumbled a bit and held a hand to his helmeted head as he leaned on the Krogan for support, "Ah, my head, what happened?"

"We got hit by a mine, knocked you up pretty good, but I think you'll live" replied the Krogan,

"Ah!" Zekk yelped, clutching his sides, "really? Because I feel like I'm about to die any moment now."

"Well if you do, do it after you've gotten this shuttle up and running,"

"Alright, alright, this should only take a moment," assured the Quarian as he limped over to the vehicle

Wrex nodded, letting the Quarian do his work to join Thane who was keeping a watch of the perimeter. The Drell noticed the Krogan,

"You think they're coming?" asked Wrex,

"I'm sure of it," replied the assassin, "do you have any weapons left?"

"Just my pistol," the Krogan showed the Drell, "only one shot left though. I think Lydia's grenade launcher still has one shot left."

Thane nodded, then left to go procure the weapon. It may have only had one shot, but at least that was better than having nothing. Though even then, both warriors knew that one shot would hardly make a difference.

Wrex sighed as he kept watch, wishing that he had a Krogan cigar. He didn't usually smoke, the stuff ruined lungs fast, even Krogan lungs. But right now, he could do with something to ease off his stress, especially considering everything that he'd gone through in the last couple of days.

To pass the time, he gave a quick check to his pistol. One shot left, that was all it had. Somehow, Wrex had a feeling that he wouldn't be using that shot for the Hunter, but for himself. He might not win, he was almost certain he was going to die, but he'd be damned if he let those hunters take his skull and put it on a trophy rack for their buddies to gawk at.

That was the only comfort that was given to him and it wasn't exactly much.

Over by the shuttle Zekk continued his scans while Thane grabbed the grenade launcher from Lydia's back after placing her inside of the shuttle. The Drell set the weapon on the hood of the shuttle and asked, "Are you almost done?"

"Yeah," said Zekk, "already done actually, just need to fire this thing up and we can kiss this planet good bye."

Thane nodded, it seemed that for once, fortune would smile upon them.

Unfortunately, fortune had other plans.

The Roar of the Hunter suddenly broke through the peaceful night sky, shattering any hopes that they would be getting off the planet.

Wrex saw a flicker of light but did not draw his pistol, knowing that one shot wouldn't do him any good in this situation. The Hunter decloaked, revealing itself next to the massive fire that burned in the middle of the camp.

On its shoulder it carried the body of its fallen brother, that gave Wrex a small amount of relief, knowing that they'd only have to deal with one.

In its opposite hand, it held a large bag that dripped with blood. It swung the bag and tossed it into the air, the bag and its contents landed a few feet in front of Wrex, spilling out what it held.

Out came four, bloodied and severed Yahg heads.

Wrex bit his lip, he had a feeling that this hunter wasn't a push over.

The White Hunter respectfully placed his brother's corpse upon the ground, then turned to face his prey, no, not prey, opponent. These ones had proven themselves to be more than just prey, they were hunters themselves and had gained the right to be called opponents.

The Hunter noticed that the Krogan did not move to take out its weapon. Behind it, he saw the Drell with its hands around another, larger weapon but did not raise it to fire.

Instead, the Drell picked it up and strapped it to his back,

"Zekk," whispered Thane, "get in the shuttle and start it up, when you see a chance, take off."

"What? No! I'm not leaving-"

"I'm not asking you to leave, but if the shuttle is destroyed, the so is our chance to escape."

Zekk silenced himself and nodded, then began edging his way to the shuttle's doors. He quickly slipped inside and jumped into the cockpit.

Thane cautiously walked over to his Krogan companion as they waited for the hunter to make the first move.

"Where's Zekk?" whispered Wrex,

"Prepping the shuttle," Thane whispered back, "once he sees the chance, he'll take off and keep the shuttle safe."

"Good thinking," Wrex noticed the grenade launcher on Thane's back, "is it loaded?"

Thane nodded,

"When you see a chance, use it, make sure the bastard doesn't see it coming,"

Thane nodded again,

The White Hunter began to strode forward, taking long strides towards them, strangely enough the moves were clearly none hostile. Wrex and Thane began to move forward too, keeping up their guard just in case the Hunter suddenly decided to attack.

When the three combatants were separated by only four meters, the White Hunter stopped and so did Wrex and Thane.

The hunter cocked its head to side as if examining them, sizing them up. It was strange for Thane and Wrex, to be so close to one but not have it attack them.

Then, the Hunter did something unexpected. It reached up to its mask and grabbed one of the tubes connected to it and unplugged it. It reached for the opposite side and unplugged the other one.

Even more unexpected, it grabbed the shoulder cannon from its back, detached it. The hunter held it out as if showing Wrex and Thane, then dropped it on the ground with a heavy, thump!

Finally, it reached both hands up to its mask and grabbed either side of it, there was a small click as the mask loosened its grip. The hunter slowly lifted the mask off, dropped it to the ground, and showed its true face to them.

Its skin was pale and clammy, almost similar to amphibian creatures. Its eyes were sunken into its face and were a dark red with a demonic yellow circle surrounding the pupil. Four mandibles surrounded an open mouth filled with piranha like teeth, giving it a strange resemblance to a mutated crab. On its steep, long, wide, forehead was a noticeable scar shaped into a jagged diagonal N with two dots in the crevices.

Both Krogan and Drell were stunned, though Wrex managed to summarize what both were thinking,

"You are one **ugly** mother fucker,"

The pale hunter roared, spreading his exposed mandibles apart and bearing its teeth to them. Then, it unhooked the bone tomahawk from its belt with its left hand and unsheathed the serrated wrist blades from its bracer on the right.

Wrex was the first to move, he charged forward like any Krogan would.

The White Hunter met his charge head on,

When they were within striking distance of one another, Wrex lashed out with his shoulder leading the blow. But the Hunter swiftly spun itself out of the way, dipped down low, hooked the head of its tomahawk around Wrex's ankle and jerked, tripping the Krogan.

The White Hunter followed up by punching its wrist blades down at Wrex. Thankfully the Battle Master managed to roll away.

Suddenly Thane was there, attempting to deliver a boot to the alien's face. But the White Hunter quickly caught the Drell by the ankle and pulled the assassin of his feet.

Then Wrex slammed into the side of the White Hunter, dragging it along in hopes of smashing it into a tree. But the White Hunter did not yield, it dug its heels into the ground and pushed back and when Wrex refused to yield as well, it purposefully sheathed its wrist blades and began mercilessly pummeling the Krogan's face.

The Krogan staggered back from the bone bruising blows, the hunter raised its tomahawk to strike but found its attack countered when Thane rushed forward and lashed out with a kick that struck its wrist that sent the attack off course.

The Drell then spun himself and performed another kick that connected with the Hunter's abdomen, but pushed him back more than it pushed the hunter.

The White Hunter swung out with its tomahawk, Thane ducked under, stepped in and landed a series of blindingly fast punches upon the hunter's chest. But he might as well have been striking against a solid stone wall as none of the blows had any effect.

The Hunter then promptly retaliated with an uppercut that connected with Thane's chin and sent him tumbling to the ground. The White Hunter walked towards his fallen opponent with its tomahawk raised, when it was suddenly flung back by a wave of blue energy.

Wrex, glowing with biotic power, charged forward. The Hunter replaced the tomahawk onto its belt and charged as well. The two warriors locked hands and found themselves in a contest of strength, one that Wrex soon found had the odds stacked against him.

The Hunter placed one foot forward, then another, and another, each step causing Wrex to slide back through the dirt though he fought for every inch. The Hunter suddenly brought its knee up into Wrex's stomach, the wind was immediately knocked out of him, long enough for the Hunter to break its right hand off and use it to clamp around Wrex's thick throat.

The Krogan let out a strangled call for air as the White Hunter's vice like grip slowly crushed his air pipe.

The Hunter might have killed the Krogan right there, if it had not been distracted by Zekk starting up the engine of the shuttle and promptly taking off into the skyline.

The Hunter lost its concentration for a brief moment, long enough for Wrex to punch it in the snout and cause it to release him.

By now Thane had risen back up, seeing an opening in the Hunter's defenses, he used his biotics to blast the reeling hunter with a wave of power.

The assassin saw his chance, he armed his grenade launcher, too aim and fired.

The explosive flew true towards the hunter, but at the last possible moment, the hunter regained its composure and brought to bear its own biotics.

The explosive suddenly stopped in mid-flight, just a foot away from striking the hunter.

Wrex, who had recovered, noticed that the explosive was now turning towards them.

"Not good,"

The grenade shot towards them and the two immediately scattered in different directions. The explosive went off, Wrex managed to duck behind a fallen tree but Thane was caught in the shockwave and brutally slammed into a tree.

The Hunter stalked over towards Wrex first, moving towards the log he'd seen the Krogan take cover behind. But much to its surprise, when it leaned over the log it was greeted by an angry Krogan's bright red crest to the chest.

The Hunter was knocked back into a tree and its tomahawk slipped out of its grasp. Wrex wasted no time in ramming himself into the White Hunter, then mercilessly slamming his fists upon its ugly face.

The Krogan never relented, knowing that if he did it could spell the end of his long lived life. He kept punching, kept beating, even when his tired body screamed for him to stop, he didn't. He continued going at it with the ferocity enviable to a professional boxer, until finally he could take no more.

The Hunter leaned limply against the tree, Wrex smiled tiredly as his he heavily panted for air. Now all that was left was to finish the ugly bastard off.

But the Krogan Battle Master's victory was short lived, when the White Hunter's right fist suddenly came up and smacked the Krogan right in the face.

With a blood thirsty growl of fury, the Hunter began its own merciless beat down upon Wrex. With its well-trained muscles it rained pain down upon Wrex as each of its fists took its turn at slamming into the Krogan's body over and over again.

At one point Wrex managed to avoid one attack, letting the Hunter smash its fist into one of the dead tree, only for its bark to explode into splinters under the White Hunter's raw power.

Wrex raised up both arms and blocked one of the Hunter's strikes, grabbed it by the wrist, pulled it in and struck it across the jaw.

The Hunter's response was to backhand the Krogan away.

But the Krogan shrugged it off and suddenly grabbed the Hunter by the waist, used his immense strength to lift it into the air, then slam it down onto the hard ground. Then, as a coup de grace, he raised his foot to stomp down on the Hunter's exposed belly. He sincerely wished he hadn't when the Hunter caught his foot and used it to shove him off balance.

The White Hunter quickly rose and began to rain down blows upon the Krogan again this time with increased ferocity.

Wrex could only feebly stumble back as each strike sent him reeling back in a daze of pain.

He barely heard the sharp metallic sound as the Hunter unsheathed its wrist blades and sliced them across the Krogan's chest, cutting through his armor as though it were nonexistent.

Wrex let out a yell of pain, the White Hunter picked up its fallen tomahawk, lifted it into the air and brought it down upon Wrex's armored shoulder. The bone head cut through the Krogan's tough hide and into the flesh beneath.

The White Hunter yanked its tomahawk from the Krogan's body and raised it for the killing blow.

But that blow never came, as the weapon was suddenly ripped from the Hunter's hand and imbedded into a tree's trunk.

Wrex slumped to the ground,

The Hunter whipped around to see Thane, bruised and battered but not dead.

"You and I have unfinished business," said the Drell,

The White Hunter seemed to agree, immediately he began coming at Thane with that arrogant walk it enjoyed using. Thane made no attempt to move, knowing that if he made the first move the Hunter would easily counter.

Instead, he let the Hunter come to him and let it make the first move.

It started off with a powerful swing of its right fist that Thane dodged under and retaliated with two quick jabs, but this time Thane fused his attacks with his biotic powers, surrounding his hands with the blue energy like biotic gauntlets.

The Hunter did not expect this and was appropriately surprised when the jabs caused it a fair amount of pain, it felt like when that Krogan had been punching him. But even then, it quickly shrugged the pain away, grabbed Thane by the back of the head and punched the Drell across the face.

The fist came down again, but Thane batted it away with his biotically enhanced hands and retaliated by sending his own fist into the hunter's stomach, once, twice! The Hunter noticeably bent over a bit when the fist connected.

When Thane attempted to strike a blow to the White Hunter's exposed face, the Hunter grabbed Thane by his outstretched wrist, pulled the Drell in and hit Thane across the chin then used its free hand to deliver a powerfully brutal strike to the side of the assassin's face.

Thane staggered back, before he could recover, the Hunter delivered a straight kick to the Drell's stomach. Thane was sent through the air and onto his back twenty feet away.

He felt that some of his ribs were now completely broken but he came to his feet nonetheless.

The White Hunter calmly strode towards Thane, then swung out with an experimental right hook. Thane dodged under, then delivered a strong kick to the Hunter's side, then following up with a biotic punch. But the Hunter caught Thane by the fist and struck Thane across the chin, sending the Drell down to his knees.

The assassin attempted to stand back up, but the Hunter struck him right back down.

Thane stumbled back to gain some distance, stumbling upon a pile of bodies that had yet to be skinned. He noticed one body had a sheathed knife, he hurriedly grabbed hold of it and swung it at the Hunter, slicing a thin line across its chest.

Thane pressed his advantage, he jumped up at the Hunter, knife in hand and sunk it deep into the Hunter's shoulder. Green blood immediately began to spill out, but the White Hunter grabbed Thane by the neck and tossed him away.

It then grabbed the puny knife and yanked it out without consideration and tossed it away.

Thane was now lying on the ground, withering in pain.

All the days of running, of constant fighting, of death, had finally caught up with him. He was no longer prepared mentally or physically to fight.

That why he didn't resist when the Hunter grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into his knees, it raised its serrated wrist blades, letting Thane gaze upon the instrument of his death.

Thane closed his eyes, knowing that soon, he would hear the sounds of the ocean.

"Hey!"

Thane's eyes shot open and both he and the hunter turned to the side to see Wrex, aiming his pistol at them.

"Smile wide pussy face"

Wrex squeezed the trigger and let loose his only shot,

The bullet flew through the air and struck the Hunter right in its left eye, an explosion of green blood splattered the ground. At first, nothing happened, the Hunter continued standing.

But then, Thane felt its grip fade from around his throat.

The White Hunter, fell back, onto the ground and moved no more.

A resounding silence, filled only with the sound of the crackling fire, hung in the air. It was finally interrupted by the recognizable sound of the shuttle, the sound of their ride home snapped both Drell and Krogan from the stupor.

Even then, they still stared at the body of the fallen hunter, half expecting it to jump back to its feet and start slaughtering them.

But no, it remained still and on the ground.

Wrex clumsily stumbled over to the Drell and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?" asked the Krogan,

Thane nodded, Wrex gave him a small pat and said, "Come on, let's get off this damn planet."

Zekk carefully landed the shuttle and popped open the door, letting both Thane and Wrex in. The two immediately collapsed upon the chairs as soon as they were in.

"Are you two alright?" asked Zekk from the cockpit,

"Just drive kid," groaned Wrex,

Thane scooted over to a still unconscious Lydia and placed his fingers on her neck, he felt a relatively steady pulse and let out a sigh of relief.

He felt the shuttle begin to lift off, then accelerate up into the sky.

The vehicle rocked slightly as it exited the planet's atmosphere, soon Thane could see the familiar sight of space.

"Get comfortable," said Zekk, "it's gonna be a long ride home."


	11. Chapter 11

Epilogue

After only two days of flying through the mass vacuum of space, the survivors of the Preserve Planet happened upon a merchant ship that had been flying through the sector.

The Merchant ship allowed them to dock with them,

But instead of telling the owners of the ship of their adventure on the Preserve Planet and their encounter with the Hunters that had kidnapped them for safari, Wrex made up a story of how their ship was attack by pirates and that they were the only survivors.

When the rest of the group asked why Wrex had lied, he simply replied, "I don't think the galaxy is ready to take on those Hunters, what we just went through was just safari for them. I'd hate to see a full scale war."

The group made a deal with the merchants, in return for keeping the shuttle, the merchants would drop them off at the Citadel.

The trip took another two days, but those two days were much more comfortable than the many they gone through on the planet. On the ship, they were given medical care for their many injuries.

Lydia in particular was sent to the ship's infirmary where she was given proper treatment and eventually woke up from her unconscious state.

"Ugh, my head feels like it got hit by a hammer," she groaned as she lay in the hospital bed.

"I could give you some pills if you'd like," the nurse tending her offered,

"Well, that might do it," said the mercenary, "but I've got a better idea."

Before the nurse could ask what, Lydia suddenly grabbed her by the collar and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

About an hour later, the nurse exited the infirmary with a knowing smile on her lips and a glowing blush on her cheeks as she adjusted her clothing.

Lydia, lay in her bed with her hands behind her head and a devilish smirk. She licked her lips and pulled up her pants, then said to herself, "Chicks can't resist the injured look"

( #(%*&()&*% )#(*&%)& #()&*%)#*(&% )&*(%)

Zekk was glad to find that Turians were part of the ship's crew, because that meant that there were plenty of foods that his system could actually digest.

In addition, he spent a good amount of time browsing various merchant's wares, particularly the jewelry section.

"How about this one?" suggested the Turian merchant, holding up a silvery ring decorated with a blue gemstone,

"Mmm, no, it could sent the wrong message," said Zekk,

"Of course, Of course, don't want that girl of yours to think you're going to fast," said the Turian as he replaced the ring, "hmm, how about a bracelet?"

The Turian lifted a box and opened it for Zekk, showing off a selection of various bracelets.

"Hmm, maybe," he said, thoughtfully touching his chin, "Do you have anything else though?"

"A very serious buyer aren't you? I like that in a customer," said the Turian, placing the box down, "I think I've got just what you need."

The Turian produced a smaller box and opened it for Zekk,

Under his helmet, the Quarian smiled, "It's perfect"

( #*%& ()*#%& #)(*%&) #(&*%) #(%&*)&*#% )%&*)

Thane spent most of his time on the ship, recuperating and meditating in the quarters provided to him. He sat on his bed, legs crossed with his eyes closed. He performed a deep breathing exercise that was meant to soothe his body and allow it to recover quicker.

His exercise was abruptly interrupted, when a hard coughing fit struck his system. After the fit passed, his throat felt raw, he attempted to begin the exercise again, but was interrupted a second time by his coughing, this time blood came out.

Thane began to realize what was going on; his Kepral's syndrome was starting to rear its ugly head. He did not have much time left. He had escaped that death filled planet, only to find it inside of himself.

Most would have become depressed or distraught, but not Thane. He had had time to be depressed, he had had time to be distraught. Now was his time to be at peace and to make it.

But before that, there was one last thing he had to do,

The Drell clasped his hands together and began to pray,

"Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness…"

( #%&)(*#%& #)(*%&)#(*%&() #%&()# *&%) #&%)#%& )

Wrex spent most of his time in his quarters as well, staring out into the vastness of space.

Though few caught it, he had come off that planet a changed Krogan. All his life, he'd believed that his kind were the biggest, baddest, most powerful sentient life forms out there. But those Hunters, had tossed him around like a child. More than once he'd nearly died at their hands and only lived because there were others to stop it.

He had no doubt that if Thane had not intervened in that final battle, his skull would be on a rack right now.

If he was going to lead her clan, his people, into a new age where they were not longer just mercenaries or muscle, then he needed to realize something. That the Krogan, despite the atrocity committed against them, had in a way brought it upon themselves.

They'd gone out of their way to prove that they were the biggest and the baddest and in that time they'd destroyed their own planet and caused the other races to fear them. If the Krogan were to rise back up in the universe, they didn't need to just be feared, they needed to be respected.

And one of the best ways to be respected, Wrex realized, was to show that they knew when to admit that they were out of line.

Despite what the Hunters had put him through and despite the fact that in the end they'd won, Wrex bent knee to admit that they were stronger than him. He admitted that they're victory was one of pure luck. That bullet could have easily struck anywhere else on the hunter's body and not killed it, then they'd all be dead.

The White Hunter had them out matched in every conceivable way, in strength, skill, technology, everything.

They had survived because of a lucky roll of the dice, because lady luck had smiled upon them that day.

It was a humbling to admit it and it was a thought Wrex would carry to his grave.

( #&%)(*&%) (#&%)(#&*%)&(* #%)&)% (#&%)&#% )&%) )

The days went by quickly, when the group finally reached the Citadel, they all went their separate ways.

Thane immediately checked into Huerta Memorial Hospital,

There he had his Kepral's syndrome treated, there he stayed till the last of his days. But before the end, Thane was often visited by his son, Kolyat.

Thought their talks were awkward, due to their past, Thane found the hours talking to his son were some of the best he'd ever spent in his life. Most of their time was spent trying to explain why Thane had not been there for his son and why he didn't want Kolyat to follow down his path.

Thane instead, pleaded Kolyat to speak with the Drell priests, to find a peaceful existence and not one full of violence like he had.

"Kolyat, my line of work has never made me any friends only enemies," whispered Thane,

"But people respect you, fear you, and you know how to fight, doesn't that keep you safer?" protested his son,

"No Kolyat, I found out very recently that all it does is make my life more dangerous. I almost died recently, on my last job"

"What? Is that why you're in here?"

"No, I-" Thane let out a hoarse cough, "I'm here because my illness is actually worsening, but all the same, I did almost die on my last job."

"How? I thought you were the best!"

"I was the best Kolyat, before now, perhaps when I was younger and my sickness was not so prevalent," replied Thane, "but now, I am older and my sickness is finally claiming my health."

"I now know, that there are people out there that look for beings like me, beings who turn killing into an art and have become a master. Only a few days ago, I was kidnapped, then put on a strange planet."

"What happened?"

"I awoke, but when I did, I was free to do as I pleased and retained all of my weapons. Do you know why Kolyat?"

His son shook his head, no.

"Because my kidnappers wanted me to fight, because they wanted to fight me. They had noticed my skill, my precision, my experience," he said hoarsely, "they wanted to test themselves against me, because they found pleasure in fighting."

"That's terrible, did you kill them?"

"Not I, but someone else. I was badly outmatched, horribly outmatched, it is only sheer luck that allows me to lay in this bed and speak to you son. I should have died on that planet, but by a miracle I didn't. Do you understand why I tell you this Kolyat? It is so that you know, why I don't want you to follow the path that I chose. So you understand why I beg you to speak with the Drell priests and find for yourself a life of peace and true happiness."

In the end, Kolyat told his father that he would, "think about it"

During the coming Reaper invasion, Thane would help his good friend, Commander Shepard in one last mission.

The Alliance Councilor, Donnel Udina, would stage a coup with the aid of the terrorist organization Cerberus, in an attempt to seize power for humanity.

Thane would successfully contribute in fighting the coup, by rescuing the Salarian Councilor from a Cerberus assassin, though he would be mortally wounded in the process.

Thane spent his last moments in pain but in the presence of both Kolyat and the Commander. There, he had his last wish granted: a small prayer for one of the closest friends he'd ever had.

( #()*%&) #%*(&()*%& )#%&)#&%) &#%)%& #)%& #)

Wrex would return to his clan.

As he walked through the rubble halls of his clan's dwelling, the guards stepped in front of him.

"Halt, identify your…Chieften?!"

"Out of my way," growled Wrex,

"Chieften, we all thought you dead!"

"No two-bit pirate can get the best of Urdnot Wrex," he said as he brushed past the guards,

He entered his throne room where he saw a sight that made his blood boil. Two more guards stepped in his path, "Halt, you must wait, the Chieften is in talks with his advisors."

"I am the Chieften you moron!" Wrex shoved his way past those two as well,

He walked up to the Throne, drawing the attention of both the advisors and the 'Chieften'

"Wrex? You're alive?" asked Urdnot Wreav,

"You're in my seat!"

Wrex promptly grabbed his brother by the shoulder, then carelessly tossed him out and down the steps. He sat down on the familiar rock throne and stared into the eyes of the gathered advisors, "anyone got a problem with that?"

One Krogan looked like he was going to say something, but was immediately silenced when Wrex let out a low intimidating growl.

"Now what the hell's happened since I've been gone?"

The Krogan Chief would lead his clan and most of his remaining people in the coming years.

When the Reaper invasion would come, he would bargain with the other races for a cure to the Genophage. With the support of Commander Shepard and the Turian Primearch, the Salarian's conceded to giving them the cure and a healthy non-infected female Krogan named Eve.

Wrex would then help Commander Shepard and a Salarian Scientist named Mordin in defeating a Reaper that had landed on Tuchanka and in dispersing the cure throughout the planet's atmosphere.

He would then lead his people in the final battle of Earth.

Afterwards he would lead his people in a new age, procuring new planets for them to settle, along with the help of Eve.

After his eventual death, Wrex was memorialized by the Krogan as the harbinger of the Krogan people. His ideals and great acts of valor would forever guide them in the future.

( #*%()(#&*% ()#%&) (#&%) #%)&*% )#&%& #%)&)

Lydia rejoined the Eclipse after returning, she joined Zekk in traveling back to Omega where she immediately hit the clubs.

She drank as much alcohol as possible and slept with as many people as she could find. Her life went on as it had before the encounter with the Hunters, though now she had a better appreciation for life, an appreciation that made her live life to its absolute fullest.

During the Reaper invasion, she led many of the Eclipse troops through numerous fights at the behest of the Asari Aria T'Loak and Commander Shepard.

She eventually broke off from the Eclipse and became one of the best known independent merc

"Its a simple job," said the Human politician, "get in, kill everyone, and get out. That's all I need"

The female mercenary sitting across from him in the Omega night club took a long drag of her cigar, then let out a large puff of smoke.

"And exactly how much are you willing to pay?" asked Lydia over the rhythmic techno beat,

"10,000 credits, up front," replied the man, as important as this transaction was, he found himself having a bit of a hard time concentrating.

Lydia sat herself on a long luxurious couch, leaning back in a decidedly arrogant manner. To her left, she wrapped her arm around a pretty young Asari dancer, wearing a scandalously skimpy outfit and lustily kissing the mercenary's neck. On her Lydia's lap, another girl, this one human lay her head while Lydia herself shamelessly reached down the girl's dress and groped her generously large breasts.

Lydia took another drag of her cigar, then said, "how about 15,000?"

The man was taken aback, "Miss, be reasonable, I've already offered you quite the-"

"15,000," she repeated, "or we don't deal and if you call me Miss again, I'm gonna shoot your balls off."

The man gulped in fear, knowing that she would live up to her threat. "very well, 15,000 it is."

"Good, I want half of it up front and the rest transferred to an offplanet account when I finish," she ordered,

The man nodded,

"now if you'll excuse me," Lydia said, standing up, her two girls following,"I have a few things I'd like to do before I start"

Taking both the Asari and human around the waist, she left to go back to her apartment.

"So, you two ever been part of a threesome?"

"Well, there was this one time my best friend, my boyfriend, and me-"

"Oh, you've got a boyfriend? Call him over, we'll have a foursome"

Lydia eventually became famous for her ability to get the job done violently, her incredibly high body count, and the ridiculously large amount of people she was rumored to have had sex with.

At some point she also wrote a book title _"Sexual Fantasies To Fulfill Before You Die"_

( #*%()(#&*% ()#%&) (#&%) #%)&*% )#&%& #%)&)

Zekk, arrived back on Omega, where he returned to a familiar bar.

Zekk sat down on the stool, hands twitching nervously as he stared at the back of his friend. The girl turned around to take his order, when she saw who it was, her face broke into a wide smile.

"Hey you! How've you been!" she said playfully, reaching over the counter to give him a hug,

"Hey Kat," he said, hugging her back, "its good to see you again,"

"It's good to see you too, where the hell have you been? There's been no one around to keep perverts from groping my ass for the past few days,"

"Well, I got kidnapped," he explained,

Kat's eyes immediately widened, "Oh my god, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, "couple broken ribs, but nothing too bad. Almost died a few times, but nothing too bad."

Kat smiled, "You and your adventures,"

Zekk shrugged,

"So, can I get you anything to drink?" she asked,

"Uh, listen Kat, can we just talk for a moment?" he asked nervously,

"Sure, what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, we've known each other for a pretty long time right?"

"Yeah, almost the entire time you've been on your pilgrimage," she replied, "and every day, you come to my bar and sit on that stool."

"Right, so we're…really close friends right?"

Kat looked at Zekk with a disbelieving stare, "of course we're close friends, you're like, my best friend, ever"

"Oh, wow, thanks," said the Quarian, suddenly ten times more bashful, "well, you see…I mean well…um"

"What is it?"

"Ugh, this is going to sound really stupid," groaned Zekk, he took a deep breath, then began again,

"Kat, when you get kidnapped and your life is in danger, things happen. Certain types of things, you start looking back on your life, thinking about all the things you've done,"

"Ooookay" she said,

"And, when you're facing the possibility of death, you also tend to think about the things you wanted to do in life. You start, thinking about the people that are close to you, the people…you really could never live without, the people you love."

"Zekk?"

"Umm…maybe, that was a bit much," he said nervously, "but…uh…bottom line, I…uh…I got you something."

He reached down into his pocket and pulled out a long box and pushed it across the counter to Kat. The human female stared at the box for a moment, then Zekk inched it over a bit more and bade her open it.

She did and when she did, she was confronted with the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. It was a masterfully crafted golden chain necklace, with a golden carving an angel on hanging from it and in the angel's hands was a perfectly cut diamond.

Kat grasped it carefully as though afraid she might break it and held it up at eye level.

"I was on a merchant ship, was just browsing through the jewelry section when I saw that," he explained, "and when I did, I thought of you."

"Me?" she asked in disbelief,

"Yeah," he said, bashfully looking at the counter, "because, in my eyes, you're…an angel."

The young Quarian couldn't bring himself to look up at her, he was far too embarrassed and was starting to wonder if this was a good idea.

When no response came from Kat, he thought about leaving. Then a hand lovingly guided him back up by the chin where his vision was suddenly filled with red. It took him a moment to realize that Kat was in fact kissing his visor.

When her lips left, she smiled girlishly at him and said, "I love it,"

"Really?"

"Mmhmm" she nodded, that's when Zekk saw a playful twinkle in her lovely eyes. She turned to her fellow employee and said that she was going on a break.

The human girl leaped over the counter, grabbed Zekk by the hand and began leading him upstairs.

"Where are we going?" he asked,

"Shhh," she said, putting a finger to his mouth. She led him into her room, closed the door, locked it and pushed him onto her bed.

Before Zekk knew it, she had straddled his hips,

"Kat, I didn't give it to you so that I could get into your-"

"I know," she whispered huskily, taking his mask in both of her hands and carefully lifting it off, showing her his true face, "that's why I want this."

Before he could respond, she silenced him in a passionate kiss. Gradually, Zekk gave into her and slowly fell back on the bed.

Though it was never said, Kat knew that the young Quarian had basically told her, "I love you"

( #%&)( #*&%()#%&) #&%)#&%) #&% )#&%) #%&)%& #)

Back on the Preserve Planet, one hour after the survivors escape…

All was quite in the hunter's camp,

For no one was there to scream as the corpse of the White Hunter began to move, a small twitch at first, then full blown movement of the body. The White Hunter pushed itself up into a sitting position, green bio-luminescent blood dripped down from its eye and onto its chest.

A horrible pain radiated out of its left socket, then it remembered that it had recently been shot in the eye.

It promptly reached up, sunk its taloned fingers into its bleeding eye socket, and tore out what remained of its destroyed eye. The White Hunter looked at remained of his eye, a white bulbous jelly in a semi spherical shape, stained with his own green blood.

He crushed the offending object in his hand then tossed it away. Not like he was going to be using it anyway.

The hunter pressed on the side of its head and was rewarded with a loud cracking sound; it pressed on the other side and was given another crack.

The White Hunter then stood up and took in its surroundings. After a few minutes of looking through its one eye, it found its fears confirmed. The prey had escaped.

But instead of roaring in range, he let out a small "kkk-kkk-kkk" that was its kind's equivalent to laughter. Yes, the prey had indeed escaped, no, not prey, opponents. The White Hunter berated himself for forgetting that the he had decided before that they were opponents and not prey.

They had proven themselves worthy of the title before and now they had proven it again, by escaping the clutches of the planet. The White Hunter was honor bound not to pursue them and to show them respect, should they ever meet again on the field of battle.

No, he would not pursue.

The White Hunter instead went about the camp, recollecting his mask, his tomahawk, and his shoulder cannon. He then walked over to the body of his fallen brother, he hefted it up and carried it back to their ship.

There he lay it down on a ceremonial table reserved for the fallen, right next to a similar table where he had placed his other brother. He mourned their loss, but knew that they would be proud to have died at the hands of such worthy opponents.

This Hunt was over, but still, there were so many others to embark on, so many trophies to be collected, especially with such a Variety of Prey.

**End**


	12. Author's Last Thoughts

**Author's Last Thoughts**

Alright, hey there readers, DB84 here! Wow, I actually finished a story! My first story finished! Words can't describe how happy I am! Anyway, this is a little segment I like to call Author's Last Thoughts, this is where I, the author, tell you what my thought process was in writing the story.

I'll talk about the characters, the plot, etc,

So, lets start with characters. As you probably noticed, all of the characters featured in this story were original characters, save for Thane and Wrex.

I put Thane and Wrex into by story because they are two of my favorite characters in the Mass Effect universe and also because they are both totally awesome. I also chose them because I didn't want to use Commander Shepard, admittedly I was tempted to but ultimately decided against it. Why? Because I wanted to make something different, a lot of Mass Effect related stories star Shepard because Shepard is a character you can mold into whatever you want him/her to be.

But I wanted to do something different from the norm, so I chose Wrex and Thane.

Thane was my first choice when it came to canon characters because he's a lot like the Predators themselves. He hunts down his target using a combination of stealth and skills and I like the idea of the Predators hunting down another predator.

I also liked Wrex because he's really got that Alpha mentality, he's a big boss and I felt like that would be something that would catch a Predator's eye. Also he was a natural to take over the role of leader because as cool as Thane is, he's more of a lone wolf, Wrex is a leader.

Now lets talk about the characters that I made.

When I initially started out, I already knew that I wanted at least one of every race in my story. From there, I started looking at Mass Effect 3's multiplayer classes and used those to get an idea of the load outs to give to the characters. I also took a look at all of the various military groups of the universe, C-sec, STG, Spectre, and mercenary groups.

In Mass Effect 2 I particularly liked the three mercenary groups, the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack, and the Eclipse. So that already gave me a template for three characters.

Anyway, eventually I ended up with the characters that I had.

I created Kath, the Batarian Blue Sun, to fill the role of the whiner and pretender. The guy who back in the world feels like a big man because he's got position and a bunch of guys he can order to kill. But when he's taken out of his environment and placed in the jungle, he's cowardly and whiney.

I created Tiro to represent the Turians and also to show the law enforcement part of the world. In the original movie, Predators, I was a little disappointed that there were no police officers. I also needed a sort of nice guy and a team player. You can see the nice guy in Tiro when he comforts Zekk and is the one to cover the group's rear as they retreat.

I created Tosh, because I wanted a different type of human character. I made Tosh Cerberus in order to mix up the character types and I made him Jamaican in order to mix up the ethnicity. He also brings the spiritual feel to the story with his shark tooth necklace and belief in spirits. I also liked the idea of having that shield, just something about it caught my attention.

Morroth was my Salarian and military man, I based him mostly off of the infiltrator class, which is why I gave his a stealth cloak. Also, I always wanted to see a Predator fight a fellow stealth cloak user. I figured it would be interesting to write how for once, the Predators were the ones being attacked by someone invisible. Of course, as it turned out, it didn't help Morroth too much. Haha, moving on.

Gornol was my Blood pack Krogan, why did I create him? Because, I wanted a flamethrower. Admit it, you're trapped in a jungle with vicious aliens trying to rip out your skull, a flamethrower would be a good weapon to have. I also wanted another Krogan on the team besides Wrex, because obviously he was going to die and I wanted to have a segment where the Predator fought with a Krogan in hand to hand.

A'lez, I created her because I wanted an Asari, but more importantly I wanted a Spectre. Then I remembered that Asari Spectre from the Shadow Broker DLC and I decided, why not? I also made her because I wanted a really powerful biotic user to fight the Predators, so an Asari was a very natural choice to make. Plus I've always wanted to call an Asari, Blue girl. It was fun to do, hehe.

The Operative, the mysterious human black operative, I created him to fill the silent warrior type character. I also decided early on that I would kill him in one of the first chapters, because I wanted to put a surprising death. It's common for the main badass to be the silent type, well, this time, that silent badass gets killed early.

Zekk, my Quarian. Early on, I knew from the very start that I needed one of those bumbling, clumsy, socially awkward types in my story, but at the same time make him reasonably dangerous and useful. So I made him the tech type, that was the obvious choice considering his race. But more over I kind of wanted to make him represent the regular people of the world. He doesn't like killing he doesn't like to fight, he doesn't even like what he does. On top of that, he has someone he wants to go back to, that made him sympathetic. So, he was born. At first I didn't know how much I would enjoy his character but he really grew on me in the end.

Lydia, my raunchy Eclipse human female. From the get go, I wanted one of those indecent, horny, loudmouth type persons, but I also didn't want it to be a boy and I wanted it to have one of those cool floppy Mohawk hairstyles. So, Lydia was born and to keep going against gender sterotype, I gave her the biggest gun of the group. I actually started enjoying writing her dialogue because it was so fun to do, everything she says has some sort of sexual innuendo or is totally weird. She was actually original set to die in some incredibly badass way, but I liked her so much that the most I could do was get her horribly injured.

Now we talk about the Predators, the villians.

I admit that only one of my Predators had any actual personality, the White Hunter, as such I'll only really be talking about him.

A good deal of inspiration for this Albino predator comes from watching the movie Dark Knight Rises. As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed the character of Bane. This big, intimidating man, who was not only incredibly skilled in fighting, but also very cunning and smart. I also really liked the way that he walked in the movie, that slow walk where he holds his coat like a badass. It really gives you that feeling that he can kill you whenever he wants, he just likes to give you some time to think about it.

That's what I wanted to do with the Albino, I wanted this massive predator who could take on the biggest baddest guys of the galaxy and toss them around just to show them that he could. I particularly show that in his fights when I describe his calm walking.

I probably pissed a couple people off when the fights he was in consisted mostly of him wailing on the others. But that was the point, I wanted to drive home that this guy was almost like the prefect predator.

As far as the other Predators go, I mainly put them there to humanize the Albino a bit. Because when they die, he has a few moments of grief that he takes to mourn their death. I wanted to give them a bit of a brotherly feel.

Now lets talk about the plot of the story.

Early on I knew that if I was going to write this story, I didn't want it to just be the Predators movie with Mass Effect style characters. I wanted it to be my own original story.

Granted I did borrow elements from the actual movie, like the kidnapping, the dogs, stuff like that.

But all the same, I wanted my story. That's part of the reason why in the first chapter, I give you all these little bits of the characters lives. That was actually one of the qualms I had about the Predators movie, you never got to see the characters in action on Earth, you didn't see how badass they were you just had to assume it.

I also started thinking about logical ways to go about when you're kidnapped and stranded on some planet with hostile aliens. That's why I went through all those different scenarios of the people digging in, or going after the Predators.

It also gave me a chance to build the personality of the Predators. Because in the original Predator movie, one of the things that made the Predator awesome is that for a good portion of the movie you never actually saw the Predator, you just sort of knew he was out there.

In addition it gave me a chance to really pick on the prey, do the thing where they feel like they've got a great plan then the Predators come and totally destroy it.

Speaking of the Predators, some people might wonder why I only gave them titles like "White Hunter" instead of giving them full blown names like so many other stories do.

Well the reason for that is that I didn't want to give them names because when you give these guys names it makes them feel a lot less intimidating. Even more, when you tell things from their perspective it makes them likeable, like in a buddy kind of way.

I want you to like how horribly scary they are, not for whatever personality they might have.

I also didn't want to do one of those stories where the Predators end up liking their prey, don't get me wrong there are plenty of stories of Predators befriending humans or what not that are good. But that isn't what we originally loved the Predator for, we loved it because it was this mass murder that could tear spec ops team to pieces with just knives and spears.

Now lets talk about my own little addition to the Predator arsenal. Biotics. When I gave the Predators biotics, I knew right from the start I couldn't go overboard with them. I knew I wouldn't have them doing things like biotic charge or biotic shockwave. Why?

Well if you look at the Predator's arsenal, you realize that it is surprisingly primitive. I mean sure, they're cool but what they have in the end, are knives and spears. They want to enjoy the hunting of their prey not the utter anhiliation, which is why the only gun they have is a small shoulder cannon.

As such, I played it safe with biotics and had them do small things with them. Picking up this or that, making a barrier, stuff like that.

Last thing I'd like to talk about is my ending.

I know what a lot of you were probably thinking when you read it, "well…that was anticlimactic" or "WTF!"

Yes, I realize that my ending is strange, but I did it on purpose. I spent a lot of time making the White Hunter this almost god figure, this guy who you simply couldn't beat no matter how hard you tried.

But I wanted to show that even with all his skill, the White Hunter was still flesh and blood. That's why I had Wrex take him down with one lucky shot.

I didn't want to do one of those moments where the protagonists find the will inside to overcome the odds and beat the bad guy. Why? Because that doesn't happen in real life, in real life, if you are out matched by the bad guy, chances are the only way you're going to win is if you're lucky. Otherwise the bad guy is going to break you into pieces.

That's what I really wanted to drive home, that luck was the only reason those guys ever got of the planet. They were lucky that the bullet managed to kill the albino and as it turns out they were lucky that the albino didn't wake up earlier.

That's just the way I wanted to play things, I'm sorry if you didn't like the way I did it but that's just the way I wanted to play it. If you don't like the story for its ending at least like the story for everything else that it offers.

Well, that's it for my last thoughts on the story.

Any questions you have for me? Just PM me and I'll answer you as soon as I can.

I don't know if I'll be creating another story any time soon, right now I want to focus on my other story since I haven't updated it in like, a month.

You can check out my profile where I constantly post my story ideas, I'll put up a poll and you can vote which one sounds best to you.

For now, this is DB84, signing off

Have a fantastic day


	13. Author's Update

Author's Announcement

Hi everybody, it's been a while.

So since I love all of you so much I thought I'd communicate with you on my current dealings as well as my plans for the future.

Currently, if you are unaware, I am working on that Aliens/Mass Effect crossover story.

Check it out if you haven't already.

I am almost nearly done with the story; afterwards I might take a small break from writing. But fear not the next update will come eventually. Unfortunately real life is hounding me again, I have a job and as a result not that much free time.

But I am determined to continue writing.

On that subject, apparently I'm not a very good writer. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best writer in the world but I figured I was at least decent. But if you check the reviews section for this story you'll find this really long string of reviews from this one guy.

He's got some good points, I'll give him that.

But god damn man

I'm open to criticism, it builds better writing. I hate using this argument: but if you don't like my stories I'm not going to force you to read them. Also if you're going to criticize me I prefer you do it in one review instead of making a giant string of them through every single chapter. That's just overkill in my opinion.

Maybe I'm just over sensitive but if I find a story that I don't like, I just leave. It's a lot simpler that way than writing a review about how awful it is. I don't like coming off as one of those jerks on the web that thinks he can get away with stuff just because people can't see my face.

But if my horrible writing or lack of knowledge for the Mass Effect universe or style turn you off to my stories, I apologize. But that's just how I write, can't do much about it.

So in summary: I'm sorry, thanks for the criticism, please be more considerate by using only one review, and chill out.

Anyway, now that that's out of my system.

For my future plans I have a couple of plans in my head.

The first and most likely to happen is an Aliens vs Predator/ Mass Effect crossover story that will be taking place in Omega. I don't know about the rest of you but I found the Omega DLC a little underwhelming.

As such I have decided to set this story during that event, hopefully flush things out a little more storywise. The story will be starring Commander Shepard for the first time. I have also decided to include Zaeed Massani.

Why?

Because he's awesome.

I also have plans for a Predator/Mass Effect crossover after that. It will also have Zaeed Massani, what can I say I love the guy. It's still just an idea, haven't really thought too much about it but I think I can make it work.

Now this third idea might actually happen before that last idea. I've been playing around with the idea of a Dark Knight/ Predator crossover. Yeah that's right, Christopher Nolan's Batman universe with the Predator. Does that not sound awesome?

I'm thinking to introduce a couple characters from Batman's rouge gallery that we didn't get to see in the movies.

Hopefully I can get these ones right, because apparently I messed up on this one.

A Predator with biotics is cool right? I thought it was. Anyone in disagreement?

Hmm…

Anyway, that's just what I wanted to share with you.

Tell me what you think about my ideas in the reviews and I will see you in the future.

Provided you enjoy my crappy writing.

Bye Bye!


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